Chery Jaguar Land Rover in world's biggest car market zooms into fast lane

China-made models boast top quality, British refinement and ensure an extreme driving experience, Li Fusheng reports.

Established in 2012, Chery Jaguar Land Rover is among the newest auto joint ventures in China - yet it is also one of the fastest-growing ones in the world's biggest car market.

"As the first Sino-British premium automotive joint venture, we are working to provide the Chinese market with world-class products with a unique British lineage," said Murray Dietsch, president of the joint venture between China's Chery Automotive and British iconic brand Jaguar Land Rover.

"Over the past five years, we have been striving for excellence through the latest technologies and products," he said.

One important criterion for evaluating a joint venture is how well its products have been received in the market.

Chery Jaguar Land Rover, manufacturing and selling cars under two brands, has earned a well-regarded reputation for both Jaguar and Land Rover cars.

It has localized four models - the Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover Discovery Sport, Jaguar XFL and Jaguar XEL - and 180,000 cars had rolled off its production lines by the end of 2017.

"Based on our strict quality control standards, all four models have become the quality benchmark in the Jaguar Land Rover system," Dietsch said.

The joint venture sold a record number of 83,888 vehicles last year, a 35.2 percent rise year-on-year, accounting for almost 60 percent of Jaguar Land Rover's total annual sales in China.

The core competence lies in its globally standardized manufacturing capabilities, outstanding purchasing and logistics - as well as dedicated local research and development, and excellent talent strategy, according to the company.

Its more than 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) manufacturing plant was finished in just 22 months of the joint venture's establishment, a pace unrivalled in China's automotive industry.

The plant is the first of Jaguar Land Rover's car manufacturing facilities outside the United Kingdom. Equipped with world-class, full-scale production facilities and technologies, it is also one of Jaguar Land Rover's most advanced and efficient manufacturing sites in the world.

Abiding by "One Jaguar Land Rover, One Standard", the China-made models boast world-class quality, reflect genuine British refinement and ensure an extreme driving experience, the carmaker said.

Through its build-to-order system, the plant can handle up to 300,000 optional configurations, better meeting Chinese customers' growing demand for customization.

The carmaker said it has taken the lead in applying the "industrial internet" to realize the creation of a smart and excellent operation system.

"By implementing a full set of world-leading IT solutions, an SAP (Systems Applications and Products) system has been built covering R&D, manufacturing, logistics, finance, purchasing, sales and after sales, setting a best SAP practice record in China," said Chris Chen, deputy president of Chery Jaguar Land Rover.

The Changshu plant has also introduced Jaguar Land Rover's world-leading aluminum technology and China's first purpose-built aluminum body shop.

Featuring 340 robots, the shop produces aluminum bodies for the two Jaguar models. Using aluminum enables faster acceleration, more accurate control, shorter braking distance and better fuel efficiency, said the joint venture.

The site is also home to Jaguar Land Rover's only engine plant outside the UK. Unveiled in July, it produces Ingenium 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines for localized models.

The facility set another record when the engine plant started production within 32 months of vehicle production on the same site.

Besides its manufacturing capabilities, Chery Jaguar Land Rover has complete R&D, purchasing, quality control, sales and after-sales systems.

The R&D center is responsible for developing conventional cars, improving emissions and engines, as well as new energy car development.

The joint venture has built a globalized purchase system, so guaranteeing a pipeline of world-class products.

It has a globalized logistics system as well, which enables Chery Jaguar Land Rover to coordinate components from the UK and Europe as a whole, but also leverage local supplies in China.

For China, for the world

Close observation of China's premium car market has enabled Chery Jaguar Land Rover to introduce a series of state-of-the-art products that Chinese customers feel most excited about.

"The ever-growing sales verify our accurate insights and understanding about the China market," Chen said.

The joint venture has not just introduced products and technologies from the UK, but also imported its recruiting strategy.

The company sends technicians in key positions to the UK for training, and uses a modern staff development system based on the UK's apprentice system for today's market.

Such a system helps train local automotive professionals, from both the management and technical fields, to support healthy growth of the company and for the industry as a whole.

These talent strategies, along with financial, cultural and professional measures designed to best retain and encourage experts and specialists, helped Chery Jaguar Land Rover bring home again the accolade of "Best Employer in China" in 2017.

"Chery Jaguar Land Rover is not a joint venture in the traditional sense," Chen said.

"Besides making investment, we join hands in its operations - we discuss, we negotiate and we explore its future hand-in-hand."

The start of 2018 marks the beginning of the second Chery Jaguar Land Rover five-year plan in China and the joint venture is poised to further strengthen its localization strategy.

Chen said the localized compact SUV, the Jaguar E-PACE, will hit the market this year, fulfilling its commitment of launching five models in the Chinese market within three years.

As its goal of expanding production capacity has been achieved, the plant will see its capacity rise 50 percent to 200,000 cars a year.

Chery Jaguar Land Rover said the upgraded intelligent manufacturing system is a powerful testimony to Chery Jaguar Land Rover's commitment to support the Chinese government's Made in China 2025 initiative.

"We are now standing at a new starting point, and will strive to keep our mid-and-long-term competitiveness and lead the Chinese market," Chen said.

Contact the writer at lifusheng@chinadaily.com.

(China Daily 01/31/2018 page7)