JLR Making Another Attempt At A Chinese JV?
Rumors of Jaguar Land Rover establishing a production base via a joint venture in China have been around for nearly a year now. Talks with Chery surfaced last October, but were never heard of again. What’s keeping them? It becomes higher and higher time for JLR to start making cars in China. Deliveries of Jaguar increased 50 percent to 2,655 units last year while sales of Land Rover more than doubled to 23,459 units, reported TheTycho. Now, JLR may have found another bride.
A gaggle of Land Rover executives has been seen visiting Great Wall Motor’s factory in Hebei last week, says Gasgoo. The interesting part is that Great Wall officials confirmed the visit.
It was not just a courtesy visit. When asked about possible cooperation between JLR and Great Wall, it was said that there are still differences between the companies, “and that it would be up to Great Wall to decide the terms of the partnership.” Who said that is not entirely clear.
Great Wall is China’s largest SUV manufacturer, so a Land Rover tie-up would be a good fit. On the other hand, Great Wall is proud of their technology and has invested a lot of time and money into bringing it up to western standards. Great Wall has obtained the all-important European Whole Vehicle Type Approval for a number of vehicles. The WVTA makes the cars street-legal in all of the EU.
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