Wasn’t it just yesterday that we told you that Jaguar Land Rover will open more dealership networks in India? And now we have another news that the rugged beauty, Land Rover Freelander will be assembled in India. And it is going to happen pretty soon. Believe it or not, but it is true.

Tata Motors will start the assembly of the Land Rover Freelander in India by the end of 2010. And Tata has decided to launch the new locally assembled SUV from the mid of 2011 in India. The Freelander will be assembled at the Tata Motors’ manufacturing facility in Pimpri near Pune. The facility will be equipped with modern machineries for the assembly of the Land Rover SUV. Earlier this plant was utilized by Mercedes for the assembly of some of its cars, but since the German company has moved to its Chakan plant in Pune, it can be utilized for the assembly of the Freelander.

According to some reliable sources in the industry, Tata Motors will start the trial productions from December and has made an investment of Rs.150 crore for this assembly process. The factory will assemble about 20 cars a month. And that’s not even half of the story. Tata Motors will contemplate on assembling other models of the Land Rover stable, based on the expenditures of assembling Freeldander in this plant.

Now, every time we mention a particular model being assembled or manufactured in India, our immediate reaction is, “Would the price go down, then?”. Well, industry experts are saying that, while the assembly of LR cars will have impact on profitability of the car, it may not bring down the car’s price significantly.

So far, this is the first instance where JLR is having an assembly plant that is not within the UK boundaries. The company, however, is skeptical as to whether it will export the assembled cars to other markets. But considering that the Chinese have a great liking towards the Land Rover SUVs, it would not be very profitable for the company to set an assembly plant in China. But the company would benefit from the cost benefits it can enjoy from the differences in the import duties levied on CBU (110 per cent) as compared against the CKU (which is 40 per cent).

Freelander will compete with the BMW X3 and Audi Q5 models on the Indian roads. During 2009-10, JLR has succeeded in selling 242 Land Rover vehicles from its Mumbai showroom. But the company has been reluctant to publicise its monthly sales data for the domestic market.

Tata Motors bought the JLR brand from Ford Motors in 2008, and since then the Indian car maker has been reaping the benefits as the demand for the JLR vehicles have gone up across the world. JLR has four outlets in India, and recently the super luxurious Jaguar XJ was launched in the country.