- Big-name investors, influencers, founders focused on personal branding, and even MEDIA (pic attached) have spun a tale that the India-UK FTA will halve Range Rover prices overnight
- The truth? None of that’s happening. Worse, even Tata Motors CFO PB Balaji has himself come out and said this.
Yet the fake news goes on. Because it gets the views.
The truth? Let me break multiple parts that 99.99% of Indians don’t know.
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First, London and New Delhi have signed the FTA, but it has yet to come into force.
Why? Under the UK’s laws, the text signed between two countries must be evaluated by their Parliament for 21 sitting days for this deal to be ratified.
According to newspapers in the UK, this is likely to take a full twelve-month ratification process. Until then, nothing changes.
Even after ratification the duty cut from 100% tariff levels to 10% comes in slow motion over roughly a decade.
Thus, even if a price drop were to occur, it would happen gradually over a decade.
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Second, as stated by Tata Motors' CFO, the best-selling Range Rover Evoque, Velar, and Sport are already assembled from CKD kits at Tata-JLR’s Chakan (Pune) plant.
Local assembly shields them from the punishing import tariff today, so a new tariff schedule won’t make a big difference.
- And for Defender and Discovery cars, none of these would apply anyway
- Why? Those are not made in the UK, but at Tata’s JLR plant in Slovakia
And Tata Motors CFO has clearly stated zero intention to uproot that line for India-only demand that barely cracks four figures a year. Their price tags remain untouched.
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And above and beyond all of this:
Once the deal is ratified by the UK, and phased tariff reduction begins, even if Tatas decide to directly import cars from the UK, there is another issue.
The Indian Govt has already clarified that the lower tariffs will only apply on a decided quota of cars. And nobody knows how big that quota is going to be, as the fine print of the deal is still not out.
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The lesson? Two things.
1 - Before broadcasting or believing sensational numbers, read deeper
2 - Soundbites are cheap, Range Rovers never will be
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Best,
Jayant
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