Rumour: Jaguar Land Rover to assemble XE in India

British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is likely to launch the XE, its smallest sedan in India in 2016. The company is expected to locally assemble the car to keep its price competitive.

While JLR has not confirm these plans, Live Mint reports that it has obtained information that the company will start rolling out the locally assembled XE towards the end of next year or the beginning of 2016. JLR plans to sell 1,300-4,000 units of the JLR in India every month. If it is to reach this goal, it will need to price the car very competitively. In India, cars imported at completely built units (CBU) attract 110% import duty, while those brought in as completely knocked down (CKD) kits are subject to a significantly lower 60%. Therefore, local assembly of the XE will be essential if JLR wants to see it successfully take on the other players in the segment including the Mercedes C-Class, BMW 3-Series and Audi A4, all of which are locally assembled.

At present, Jaguar cars in India are priced over Rs. 49 lakh. The XE is expected to be the company's cheapest model and is likely to be priced at more than Rs. 28 lakh.

In 2013, JLR sold 2,913 units in India. The company lies in a fourth place in the luxury car market - a long way behind Audi (10,002 units), Mercedes-Benz (9003 units) and BMW (7,327 units).