If you read our review of the Range Rover Sport on this page a couple of months ago (Thursday, 28 March, to be precise) and seriously considered emptying your bank account to buy it (the SUV, obviously; our reviews are free), now would be the best time to take the plunge, if you haven’t already, because it’s just become a lot more affordable.
JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) India is now assembling the Range Rover and the Range Rover Sport in Pune from Completely Knocked Down (CKD) kits. As such, you can now get the Range Rover 3.0 L Diesel HSE LWB for INR 2.36 crore and Range Rover 3.0 L Petrol Autobiography LWB for INR 2.60 crore. That’s a price cut of over 50 lakh rupees. Please note that all prices mentioned in this story are ex-showroom.
The RR Sport’s price has also seen a massive reduction—around 30 lakh or thereabouts. The 3.0 L Petrol Dynamic SE and 3.0 L Diesel Dynamic SE can now be purchased for INR 1.40 crore each. However, I must mention that the RR Sport that I reviewed was the HSE variant, which isn’t being assembled in India as of now.
That compels me to take this opportunity to apprise you of the other JLR vehicles that are being assembled in India as well. In addition to the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, there are four more: Discovery Sport, Evoque, Velar, and Jaguar F-PACE. The Defender and Discovery are still brought in as Completely Built Units (CBUs). JLR India would do itself a favour by including the Defender in its CKD lineup here. Anyway, let’s talk a bit more about the Range Rovers for now.
It’s interesting to note that it’s the first time that the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are being produced outside the United Kingdom, and these vehicles are being produced in Pune exclusively for the Indian market.
The global production of Range Rover remains in Solihull, UK, which as been the manufacturing home of Range Rover since 1970. Solihull will also remain the home for Range Rover’s upcoming fully-electric model, as well as the pinnacle ‘SV’ vehicles.
Both the locally assembled Rangies (the Range Rover and the Range Rover Sport) share the same engines. The Range Rover 3.0 L Petrol Autobiography and the Range Rover Sport 3.0 L Petrol Dynamic SE share the same petrol engine that produces 293 kW of peak power and 550 Nm of peak torque.
Similarly, the locally assembled diesel models of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport also share the same 3.0 L diesel engine that produces 258 kW of peak power and 700 Nm of peak torque. The deliveries have already started so you may either go cartwheeling to the nearest JLR showroom or, if you’re someone like me, you may wait for the locally assembled Defender…