Evoque and Freelander 2 (LR2) to be built at new Chinese plant.

Jaguar Land Rover plans to build the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Freelander SUVs in the company's new China plant, a source said.

JLR said last week that the company will start production at the factory with joint venture partner Chery Automobile late this year.

The company has not said which models it will build in the plant in the eastern city of Changshu.

However, a source familiar with the company's plans told Automotive News Europe that JLR plans to produce the Evoque and Freelander at the factory.

Local production will help JLR boost sales in China's booming SUV market. SUV sales in the country rose 41 percent to 319,200 in May, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

JLR's China sales increased by 53 percent to 10,880 vehicles in in May, according to company data. Five-month sales rose 46 percent to 50,900.

The factory will have an initial annual capacity of 130,000 units.

JLR also plans to open an engine plant next to the vehicle factory to build the company's new range of four-cylinder engines.

The vehicle plant also will build cars for a Chery/JLR joint brand, a company spokesperson said. No date was given for production of the cars, which are expected to be based on existing JLR products.

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Qoros wants Europe to account for 10% of global sales, exec says.

Chinese carmaker Qoros expects to sell more than 10 percent of its cars in Europe.

"Europe will play an important role," Stefano Villanti, Qoros' head of sales recently announced.

The automaker, which is 50-50 joint venture between China carmaker Chery Automobile and Israel Corp., has been selling vehicles in its European test market, Slovakia, for seven months now.

"Slovakia is a sedan market, and our first car was a sedan," Villanti said Wednesday, explaining the choice of the eastern European country as a test market for the region.

Sales in Slovakia will be expanded to other countries in eastern Europe, followed by Nordic countries and then all of Europe by 2016, Villanti told Automotive News Europe in a separate interview.

The Qoros 3 sedan will be joined by a hatchback later this year. A crossover and an SUV with four-wheel-drive capability are also in the pipeline, he said.

Villanti said that customers for the “high-quality” compact-sized cars would fall into two categories. “You have the guy who wants an Audi, BMW but wants to pay less, and the other is a compact-segment guy, but who wants a premium car,” Villanti said.

The Qoros 3 sedan currently sells for 20,900 euros in Slovakia. “It’s not the lowest possible price, but it’s one of the best value [cars],” Villanti told the Congress. Standard equipment includes contract-free 3G Internet connectivity.

Qoros’ owners invested $2.5 billion (1.89 billion euros) to build a five-car range, Villanti said. He described it as a “fraction” of what a large, established carmaker would have spent to achieve the same outcome.

The cars are built in a new factory north of Shanghai with an initial capacity of 150,000, but that can be expanded to 250,000 to 300,000 if required, Villanti told the Congress.

Jaguar counts on XE, first crossover to reach ambitious sales goal

Jaguar is counting on the new XE compact sedan and a forthcoming crossover to help boost Jaguar Land Rover’s global vehicle sales to 750,000 by the end of the decade, up from an all-time high of 425,000 last year.

Jaguar showed an image of the XE during the Geneva auto show last month.

The production version of the Audi A4 rival will debut in October at the Paris auto show and will go on sale globally next year. The XE is Jaguar’s first mid-sized premium sedan since it discontinued the Ford Mondeo-based X-Type in 2009 (THE MONDEO WAS BASED OFF A JAGUAR FLOORPAN, THE DEVELOPMENT WAS JAGUAR AND FORD "BORROWED" IT FOR THE MONDEO, THE XT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE LAUNCHED BEFORE THE MONDEO, WITH THE TAG LINE, MONDEO, WITH JAGUAR ENGINEERING). The XE will be the first model underpinned by JLR's aluminum spaceframe. The architecture also will be used for the crossover, which will take styling hints from the C-X17 concept Jaguar unveiled last autumn. 

Andy Goss, JLR group sales operations director, declined to share the volume targets for the XE and crossover. He did, however, tell Automotive News Europe that JLR’s recently announced plant expansions hint at a total installed capacity of about 600,000 units for the automaker by later this decade. That is in line with a previously announced sales goal from Jaguar Land Rover Canada President Lindsay Duffield, who said last June that the automaker is targeting global sales of 750,000 units by the end of the decade, with an eventual target of 1 million units.

Next year, JLR plans to start production at its new China plant, which has a capacity of 130,000 units. JLR will invest 10.9 billion yuan (1.3 billion euros) to add the factory. It is part of a joint venture with China’s Chery Automobile that includes an r&d center and an engine plant in the eastern city of Changshu. Within two years JLR will also begin making vehicles in Itatiaia, Brazil, for South America. The 240 million pound (287 million euro) plant’s initial capacity will be 24,000 units a year growing quickly to 40,000 units. Plant construction is scheduled to start in a few months with the first cars rolling off the line in 2016.

“Our plants in the UK are working flat out, on three shifts five days a week,” Goss said. “The new plants overseas will free capacity in the UK for global supply of our new products.”

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