Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) India unveiled its all-new Land Rover Discovery sports utility vehicle at a starting price of ₹71.4 lakh (ex-showroom) in a bid to secure third position in the market.
“In a 30,000 units luxury car market, we had 8.5 % marketshare last year without having small cars which account for 30% of the market,” said Rohit Suri, president and managing director, JLR India.
“If you consider small cars, we had an effective marketshare of 11-12%. This year, we hope to do about 4,500 units, up 45%. This will give us a marketshare of 14% and effective marketshare of 18%...which would be actually make us number three,” Mr. Suri said.
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‘Done well’
“Wherever JLR has entered, it has done extremely well. We have knocked out the third position (large cars) very easily. Our Discovery Sport continues to be in demand and we do not have enough to supply. Range Rover Evoque is doing very well,” he said.
“Our brands are well in position. We suffer because we do not have smaller priced products. Earlier, our prices were premium which we had corrected in April/May. Our after-service network is the best in the country. With the all New Discovery and other products, we will achieve number three position. Even number two is not so difficult to achieve, that too, without having all the products,” he added.
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With 2,600 units sold last financial year, JLR, owned by the Tatas, is the fourth largest luxury car maker in India.
Based on last year’s sales, Mercedes-Benz is the biggest player followed by BMW and Audi. In calendar year 2016, Mercedes-Benz sold 13,231 units while BMW sold 7,861 units, including Mini. Audi sold 7742 units.
JLR said its sales volume was not comparable as it does not have small cars in its portfolio unlike its German competitors who had A Class, B Class, A3 and X1.
A top JLR official said despite not having small cars, JLR would still easily ‘knock out’ the third position.
Asked why the company’s products were not finding traction despite being owned by an Indian Group, Mr. Suri said, “It is a myth and it is more of a perception. The fact is that our portfolio does not have lower end products but still we have been doing exceedingly well.”
The Discovery will compete with Audi Q7 and Mercedes-Benz GLS. “This car is very well equipped. In terms of features this car is much better that the competition. We think these features will do good for us,” he added.