JLR to begin production of cars at TaMo's new plant in Tamil Nadu by early 2026

Tata Motors Ltd-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will begin the production of its vehicles at its parent’s new plant in Tamil Nadu by early 2026, a top company official said on Tuesday.

JLR will look to begin assembly of completely knocked down (CKD) units at the new plant in Panapakkam in Tamil Nadu, which is expected to attract more than ₹9,000 crore investment from Tata Motors.

“We have all the CKD operations currently at Pune. Over a period of time, we will probably migrate it there (the TN facility),” PB Balaji, group chief financial officer at Tata Motors, told reporters in Mumbai.

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The plant, whose construction began in September 2024, will be used to make Tata Motors and JLR cars with an annual production capacity of more than 250,000 vehicles.

The seller of luxury cars such as Defender and Range Rover first began assembling the completely knocked down units of its Land Rover Freelander 2 model in the country in May 2011 at Pune.

In 2024, the company began the local assembly of its Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models at the Pune plant in a bid to expand its presence in the country and lower prices.

While imports of completely built units of cars attract around 110% tariffs currently, the completely knocked down units of vehicles attract only 16.5% effective tariff rate.

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Acquired by Tata Motors in 2008 for $2.8 billion, JLR posted its highest ever retail sales numbers in the country in the last financial year. The company’s sales jumped 40% to reach 6,183 cars, with the January-March quarter recording a 110% growth to 1,793 car sales.

Its best-selling cars in the country include Defender, Range Rover and Range Rover sport.

While it currently is not making the Defender models in the country, JLR’s chief financial officer Richard Molyneux said during the company's last earnings call on 13 May that “plans are in process to assemble the cars locally”.

The bid to expand presence in India comes at a time when JLR is facing challenges in the global markets. During the investor day held on 16 June, JLR said that it is lowering its earnings before interest and tax margin guidance to 5-7% in FY26 from the earlier stated 10% due to the impact of US tariffs and slowdown in the Chinese market.

Its profit after tax also fell 30% in FY25 to 1.8 billion pounds from 2.6 billion pounds in FY24.

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Meanwhile, the country’s luxury car market has continued to grow, driven by demand for premium vehicles. In FY25, luxury car sales in the country touched an all-time high of 51,000 units.

With its local assembly leading to price cuts of up to ₹44 lakh for its models last year, JLR managed to dethrone Audi India from the third position.

The UK-based company is responsible for 71% of Tata Motors’ overall revenue and 79% of its overall profits.