Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is going to stop manufacturing all Jaguar- and Land Rover-branded models in China in the next year-and-a-half, switching instead to Freelander-branded vehicles underpinned by Chery’s T1X platform, reports Automotive News Europe.
The 13-year old Chery Jaguar Land Rover JV, which lost US$18.7 million (RM81 million) in the last fiscal year, has been making cars in Changshu since 2014, currently outputting the XE L, XF L, E-Pace, Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport. According to ANE, the Jags will stop production this September; the Land Rovers in end-2026.
Licensed to Chery last year by Land Rover, the Freelander brand will have China at its core, with Chinese engineering and Chinese tastes, but it could also go global. The first product will be a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) that shares the modular T1X platform – ironically developed with JLR’s help in 2016, ANE says – with many Tiggo, Omoda and Jaecoo SUVs, although JLR could have input in terms of design.
The end of Chinese production of JLR’s ‘house of brands‘ this may be, but bigger and more expensive models such as the Range Rover and Defender are likely to continue to be sold in China as imports.
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Hidup chery. Even india also know china is number 1
Sad news. To see another brand go down the cliff is hard. They have been producing bad cars for some time now but now on Cherry platform? Sad.