Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover, General Motors, Volkswagen and other major automobile giants on Sunday left little doubt about the special importance they are according to the world’s biggest auto market by unveiling new China-specific models and announcing plans to bolster production facilities in the country.

At Sunday’s Beijing Motor Show, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) debuted several models for the China market, including the Jaguar F-type Coupe, the Land Rover Discovery and a Range Rover Hybrid. It also revealed that its first China unit will begin manufacturing its first cars before the end of the year. Recent reports had said production would be delayed to 2015, but JLR officials here said first prototypes would soon be completed and sales expected to begin in early 2015.

Key market Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus P. Mistry attended the opening of the auto show here. JLR China officials said the first units at its venture with China’s Chery automobiles in Changshu, in southern Jiangsu province, would be Land Rover Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs). The plant will have a production capacity of 1.3 lakh vehicles annually.

China has emerged a key market for JLR. Sales last year grew 30 per cent, crossing 95,000 units.

Local production will allow the company to reduce prices for its popular Land Rover SUVs as well as Jaguar cars aimed at the fast-growing luxury segment by around 15 per cent, officials said.

Last year, 18 million vehicles were sold in China, making it the biggest auto market. JLR will face tight competition from the world’s biggest auto companies and a growing number of Chinese firms in grabbing a slice of an increasingly competitive market.

Germany’s Volkswagen said its group planned to sell more than 3.5 million cars in China this year — besides VW cars which are among the oldest foreign brands to be domestically manufactured here and are ubiquitous today in the streets of every Chinese medium-size city, the Audi is also widely popular in China — especially for government use — while Lamborghini and Bentley are banking on the growing luxury market here to drive their global sales.

GM to invest $12 b General Motors said it would invest $12 billion in China in the next three years, and start construction of five plants in 2015.

One of them will only manufacture Cadillac sedans, sales of which GM expects to double this year to one lakh. A new Cadillac sedan was debuted at the motor show.

Besides JLR and GM, Fiat SpA and Chrysler also announced plans to begin production in China next year for their popular Jeep brand.

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