JLR's cunning plan?

[treetops]

With them moving production to China (for the Chinese market) is this the slippery slope to their vehicles being designed in the UK....


.....but in the years to come being built in China (at a lower cost)?

Are they actually dipping their toes in the water on this idea?

[GroundEffect]

There isn't the experience in China for OEM design work to really take place there. It is growing (that I've seen first-hand) but for a good-time yet, design will be done in Europe and North America for most brands.

[unpc]

To be honest the big lure for the Chinese and Indian markets is the fact that top end cars are designed and made here. They love UK made luxury goods. The only reason for doing any assembly in China (on lower end models mostly) is to avoid buyers paying import duty at 100% and pretty much all major car companies have an assembly presence there. You really cannot create any volume there without it, just ask Audi who are massive in China. There really is no benefit in exporting Chinese made JLRs back to Europe by the time you've factored in shipping costs and massive lead times.

[renrut]

unpc said:

To be honest the big lure for the Chinese and Indian markets is the fact that top end cars are designed and made here. They love UK made luxury goods. The only reason for doing any assembly in China (on lower end models mostly) is to avoid buyers paying import duty at 100% and pretty much all major car companies have an assembly presence there. You really cannot create any volume there without it, just ask Audi who are massive in China. There really is no benefit in exporting Chinese made JLRs back to Europe by the time you've factored in shipping costs and massive lead times.

This.