Tata Motors, India’s largest automaker by revenues, is looking to set up a plant in North America for the production of its Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) brands.
JLR executives had recently met the Georgia governor to discuss the possibility of building the plant in the State, according to US-based media outlets.
Tata Motors is considering North America a location for another plant, US-based
Tata, now the chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, the holding company of the salt-to-software conglomerate, was in the US as a special guest at the South Carolina Automotive Summit.
When asked for details, a Tata Motors’s spokesperson said: “Naturally, as part of our wider global expansion plans, North America is an option, alongside other locations, as a future potential manufacturing location.”
“No decision has been taken on future manufacturing locations. But we will continue to evaluate opportunities to increase our international manufacturing footprint, primarily in markets with growth potential and customer demand.”
A British luxury brand, JLR is now a subsidiary of Tata Motors, after the Indian company acquired the manufacturer of Jaguar, Land Rover and Daimler from Ford Motor Company in 2008.
In October 2014, JLR opened its first overseas manufacturing facility in China, as the company intends to double global sales by the end of this decade. The plant, set up in partnership with local firm Chery Automobile Co, will produce three JLR models by 2016.
Later in December, JLR had started building its second plant in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro. The ₹1,808-crore plant is set to produce 24,000 vehicles a year once it ramps up to full production in 2016. It will employ around 400 people at the start, and around 1,000 in the supply chain.