With China’s growth still surging ahead (although not quite as fast as it has been), many Western companies are keen to take a piece of the pie. Now JLR and Chery, its Chinese partner, have agreed a joint £1.1bn investment to build a new factory just outside Shanghai.
The new plant will feature a research centre and a facility producing engines, which are normally shipped in to factories from elsewhere. JLR’s owner, Tata, already owns a JLR assembly operation in India, but the Chinese venture will be the first fully-fledged overseas production operation.
In its most recent results, JLR posted a 58% Q2 growth in sales in China compared with the same period in 2011, with a massive portion of the growth coming from the popularity of the new Range Rover Evoque.
The new plant is expected to open in 2014, and will produce models aimed specifically at the Chinese market, which is now the world’s largest for cars.
The firms said in a statement this morning: ‘Together we will now begin working in close collaboration on our partnership plans to harness the capabilities of our respective companies, to produce relevant, advance models for Chinese consumers.’
