The Land Rover Defender is one of the oldest new cars on the European market but its retirement is not far away. Its replacement was prefigured by the DC100 concept that bowed at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and the production version of it is expected to hit the market by 2014.
Tata Motors CEO Ratan Tata told the UK’s Autocar in an interview that it isn’t out of the question to build the next-generation Defender in Pune, India, close to the company’s headquarters. Land Rover already assembles Asia-bound Freelanders there and it has not experienced any quality issues.
The plan would yield several big benefits: first of all, labor is cheaper in India than it is in the UK, which would help in keeping the offroader’s price low and competitive.
Second of all, by transferring the Defender’s final assembly point to the Asia-Pacific region, it would bring it closer to what Tata has identified as key markets, such as Australia.
Lastly, if the Defender is built in Pune, it will likely share numerous chassis and suspension parts with the upcoming Tata Aria SUV. This would enable the two to be built on the same production line, saving Tata money in the long run.
In order to minimize job losses in the UK, if the Defender ends up built in India, the units destined for the European market would be shipped to the UK as complete knock-down kits and assembled there.
Tata Motors is still mulling the idea over and has not mentioned when it will come to a decision on the matter.
