Great Wall to meddle with Chery and Jaguar Land Rover's joint venture talks

Great Wall has taken actions to compete with Chery on its joint ventures talks with Jaguar Land Rover.

Carl -Peter Forster, CEO of Indian automaker Tata, which took on Jaguar Land Rover in 2008, visited the production base of Great Wall in Tianjin Monday, and has been to Wuhu, Anhui Province to negotiate with Chery on their cooperation.

Ralfspeth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover once revealed that the company intended to build a plant of 50,000 units/year and generate employment for 5,000 people.

The company hopes setting up factories in China can lower prices by dodging import taxes.

Chery, managed to sell 682,000 vehicles last year, up 36.3 percent, standing on the forefront among Chinese independent auto brands for 10 years consecutively. However, the company's further development has been hindered due to its positioning - mid and low-end cars. Chery wants to change the situation and enter the high-end auto market by cooperating with Jaguar Land Rover. According to the carmaker's cooperation plan, it will work with Jaguar Land Rover on engine, car model R&Ds. Jaguar XF is likely to become the first localized foreign car model Chery produces.

Put side-to-side with Chery, Great Wall's plan is less aggressive and much simpler. Tata only wants to cooperate with Great Wall to build a CKD assembly plant. However, the decision is highly possible to be rejected by the National Development and Reform Committee (NDRC). "The NDRC will consent on the plan as long as it does not involve independent brand product R&D and engine development," an experienced automobile analyst said.