A Range Rover Evoque SUV on display during the Chery Jaguar Land Rover plant opening ceremony in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, Oct. 2014. (Photo : Reuters)
Chinese automaker Chery Jaguar Land Rover is now offering domestically made versions of the Range Rover Evoque SUV in the market, the company announced on Sunday.
Available in four variants, the locally produced Evoque is roughly the same as its foreign-made counterparts, except that it will have both the Chery and Land Rover names on the rear. Models made in China will also have a 448,000-582,800 yuan ($71,686-93,047) price tag, compared to imported 2015 Evoque models that are priced upwards of 578,000 yuan ($92,280).
"The price [of the locally produced Evoque] is in line with expectations," Zhu Bin, a senior analyst at consultancy LMC Automotive, said in an interview with the press.
Chris Bryant, president of Chery Jaguar Land Rover, said that the China-made Evoque will meet international quality standards.
"We are determined to build the 'One Evoque' that meets global standards and to provide our Chinese consumers with the world-class quality products and services they demand," Bryant said on the official Chery Jaguar Land Rover website.
The Evoque SUV is the first model to roll out from the joint Chery Jaguar Land Rover, which is a joint venture between the U.K.-based automaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and the Chinese firm Chery Automobile Co. Production started in the fourth quarter of 2014 in the company's Changshu plant in Jiangsu Province with an annual production capacity of 130,000 units.
Two other JLR models are also slated to be made at the end of 2016, according to the state-managed Global Times newspaper.
JLR saw a 28-percent growth in sales in China in the previous years, with 122,000 units sold in the country in 2014 alone. It also became the fourth premium brand to see annual sales in China--the world's largest car market--to surpass 100,000 units, along with the German brands Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
"The nearest rival for JLR in China is Volvo, as it is also pushing forward its domestic production," said Zhang Zhiyong, a Beijing-based independent analyst.
Land Rover SUVs comprised more than 90 percent of the company's sales in China in 2014, with Chinese drivers leaning toward bigger and sportier SUVs.
The SUV segment also saw a 36.4-percent growth in 2014, surpassing that of the passenger car market, which only experienced a 9.9-percent growth in the same year, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
