The British-based Jaguar Land Rover Company plans to invest 100 million pounds (SR600 million) in Saudi Arabia to manufacture 100,000 vehicles per year that could meet the growing demand on its cars in the Middle East region, local media said.
Jaguar Land Rover has been a subsidiary of the Indian carmaker Tata Motors since 2008 when they purchased it from Ford.
Earlier, The Sunday Times reported that the luxury car maker is close to sign an agreement with its counterparts in Saudi Arabia to build an assembly factory in the Eastern Region.
According to the British paper, the proposed plant will initially make a new version of its Land Rover Discovery and is expected to employ 4,000-5,000 workers.
The proposed plant will be its third biggest factory in its overseas expansion drive following deals it has signed to open two plants, in China and Brazil, the paper said.
Azzam Shalabi, head of the National Industrial Clusters Development Program (NICDP), said the investment project is still under study with the British company. The talks began a year ago following the signing of a letter of intent (LoI) for a car-making project between the NICDP and the British company, he said.
According to British press, the Saudi government is expected to invest in the plant as it seeks to develop its automotive industry. The company is expected to assemble cars from components made in Britain and later progress to taking more parts from Saudi companies, the press said.
In 2013 Jaguar, which signed a 240 million-pound agreement to build a factory in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, plans to open a plant in China in a 1 billion-pound joint venture with Chinese car maker Chery, the reports said.
The company sold a record 425,006 vehicles in 2013, or an increase of 19 percent over the figures of last year, thus registering new sales records in 38 markets worldwide, the reports added.
According to Saudi media, three big US auto-makers, namely General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, were considering setting up car plants in the Kingdom. Japan’s Isuzu Motors is already manufacturing trucks in Dammam, and hopes to produce around 25,000 units a year.
Jaguar set to invest SR600m in new Saudi car plant
