JLR in talks with Chinese car manufacturer regarding China joint venture

---

The Telegraph are running a short story from the Frankfurt Auto Show on Jaguar LandRover’s China joint venture talks, the Indian owned British company has been in talks with a ‘mysterious’ Chinese partner for several months now, several Chinese companies have been fingered in the talks including SAIC, Chery and Greatwall.

Ralf Speth, chief executive, said at the Frankfurt Motor Show on Tuesday that JLR was now in primary discussions with one company, although would not confirm its name.

He added: “I don’t want to rush this kind of joint venture because it is important and the first one. It is in the biggest market on Earth for cars. Whenever you step in [to a partnership] it is difficult to be divorced and sometimes expensive. We can’t afford this.”

It is understood that a deal could be in place by the end of the year, but regulatory clearance from the Chinese government could take another 12 months.

Greatwall are one of the favorites in the running as they are one of the few Chinese car companies that do not have a a joint venture in China and they also have a brand spanking new state of the art factory in Tianjin that has the capability to produce 400,000 cars per year at its maximum capacity – nearly double what JLR sold last year. Last week I bumped into a Great Wall executive that I had met on a few occasions at their HQ, we had a brief chat about their new car, the H6, the Tianjin Factory but I couldn’t help ask how the talks with JLR were going “Just so-so” he replied, with a big toothy smile. If his words didn’t mean much, the grin did.