JLR will not stop Chery in bringing the new Freelander brand to the UK, new CEO PB Balaji has said, and claimed the new China-built SUVs will not cannibalise any current Land Rover product if they are sold here.
The new Freelander 8 was revealed at the start of May as a large 4x4 SUV and the first in a wave of new Freelander-badged cars destined for sale globally, with Chery to introduce a new model every six months for the next five years.
These models are being created as part of a long-standing joint venture between the two car makers, whereby JLR has licenced the Freelander name to Chery, and has penned the designs, but the cars will be engineered and built by the Chinese manufacturer in China.
Sales will begin later this year initially in China before being exported to other regions. Autocar previously reported that Chery was plotting which markets it would export those models to, with Europe and the UK not ruled out.
Freelander CEO Wen Fei previously said that any cars exported to Europe wouldn't be adapted Chinese-market models but instead bespoke derivatives tailored to each market’s demands.
Asked if JLR would give Chery its blessing in allowing it to be sold here, given it owns the Freelander name, Balaji suggested that the British brand would not stand in their way, explaining that “it’s Chery’s car” and that JLR would “let them make up their mind”.
He added: “The car will be sold primarily in China to begin with, and then they'll have to decide their plans for bringing it out to the rest of the world.
“And from our perspective, our role is ensuring that the design is in sync with what JLR stands for, and thereafter it is completely their baby.”
Balaji’s comments also strongly suggest that, if those Freelanders models are sold in the UK and Europe, they will not be marketed by JLR or placed in its showrooms.
Speaking further about any potential cannibalisation of JLR’s cars, especially given the Freelander models are to be positioned within the same segments as Discovery and Defender, Balaji said he wasn't worried.
“The price positioning of Freelander and our price positions are different," he explained. "The product offerings are different. So we don't see ourselves competing with each other. We see it as ‘together we should be expanding the market’. So let them make up their mind as to how they want to play the game."
