Land Rover beats BMW for the No.2 Spot in SUV Segment [India]

The SUV sales in India this January saw the Tata owned Land Rover overtake the BMW SUV sales with the Land Rover selling 35 units in January and BMW selling 16 units of its SUVs. Audi, however, remained at no.1 position by selling a whopping 114 units. Mercedes, seemed to struggle, selling only 6 units of the M-Class.

This rise in the sales of the Land Rover is being attributed to its lower starting price of Rs 35 Lakhs as compared to the Rs 55 lakhs which is the price of BMWs entry-level SUV X3. However, BMW plans to catch-up on this by assembling X1 at its Chennai plant which will become its entry-level SUV at a price tag of Rs 26 Lakhs.

According to analysts, another reason for the increase in sales is that Land Rover has a wider range of models available for India which include the Freelander 2, Discovery 4 Sports Tourer, the Range Rover Sport and the Range Rover as compared to BMW’s smaller range comprising of the X3, X5 and X6.

Another thing worth mentioning, here, is that Land Rover has been able to project itself as rugged SUV model, fit for rough terrains, while BMW pitched for a lifestyle alignment in the market.

Tata in cost cutting mode, JLR to go aluminium

Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover is thinking over building all its future cars with light weight aluminium bodies to reduce input costs as the two British marquees are trying hard to come out of the more than Rs 1,700 crore loss in 2008-09.

The 2010 Jaguar XFR

The two iconic brands are also developing hybrid engines for use in future models of JLR.

In its Annual Report for 2008-09, Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata said,

JLR is planning to have all its future cars constructed with light weight aluminum bodies resulting in considerable savings in weight, and reduction in CO2 emissions.

The main challenge in JLR will be to sustain operations through this difficult period arising from the global financial meltdown. There is good reason to believe that the company's new products and more aggressive marketing will see the company through this period”