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The iconic utility vehicle manufacturer, Land Rover is planning to build its future Land Rover Defender at the manufacturing facility of its parent company, Tata Motors in Pune. There is a likelihood that there may be some Defenders which are sent back to the manufacturing facility of Land Rover in Britain for some final assembly operations before being sold in the European markets under what the company calls a “reverse CKD operation”. Currently the Land Rover Freelander is being built at the Tata plant for sale in the Asian markets. The objective behind shifting the manufacturing base from UK to India, as revealed by Mr. Ratan Tata is to lower the manufacturing costs and increased focus in the Asia-Pacific markets.
Shifting the manufacturing base to India will definitely lower the manufacturing costs of the Land Rover models resulting in availability of the Land Rover products at affordable prices and it will be also easier for Tata to cater to the needs of the Asian auto market demands which is expected to be much more than the European market. The 2015 Defender will be having the body-on-frame type of construction as opposed to the monocoque type of chassis hinted at earlier. There is a chance that the new Defender will be using updated and lighter version of the much famed T5 ladder chassis. It might also share many parts with the Tata Aria like suspension parts and others to maximize on economies of scale. Tata Motors had showcased the Defender 100 concept at the 2012 Auto Expo held at Delhi and given their stint with the Evoque and carrying over concept designs to the production models, we wouldn’t be much surprised if Tata Motors manages to pull off a similar stunt with this model.
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Source – Autocar UK
