New mid-sized Jaguar may purr on Jakarta's streets

By Alastair Doak

JAGUAR's new midsize car, the X200, is expected to open up the Indonesian market for the British-based luxury carmaker.

X200, a BMW 5-Series and Mercedes E-Class competitor, will be designed for completely knocked down (CKD) export, which will allow Jaguar to establish assembly operations in Indonesia where imports of completely built cars are restricted.

At present, only a limited number of Jaguar's sedans are sold, mostly the range-topping Daimler-badged long wheelbase. Most of these are bought by foreign diplomats in Jakarta.

Last year, the company sold about 50 cars in Indonesia.

X200 is expected to be revealed at the Paris or the Birmingham motor shows in October next year before going on sale late in 1998 or early 1999.

CKD exports would follow about six to 12 months after the initial European on-sale date because it would take that long for the factory to cope with the additional production complexity.

A smaller 3-Series BMW competitor, code named X400, would also be earmarked for CKD export if this car gets the go ahead from the Jaguar board.

A decision to build X400 from early next century is expected to be taken by late this year. At present, the company is undertaking a 90 day study for the project.

Issues to be resolved include if there is a big enough market for the car, where it would be made and what platform it would be built off.

Deciding on a platform will determine whether it is front or rear-wheel drive. The Ford-owned company has never made a front- drive car.

The X400 will drive its rear wheels if the company can engineer a shorter version of the platform to be used as the basis for the upcoming midsize X200 sedan.

The X200, which will get V6 and V8 power, including the 4.0- liter V8 engine, will compete with the BMW 5-Series and Benz E- Class.

It costs between US$600 million and $700 million to develop but that does not include power train and an upgraded paint plant.

The X200 is built on a Ford global platform, dubbed DEW98, and is the only available rear-drive platform for the X400 project.

If it cannot be modified, then a front-drive platform, the only type available from Ford in this size, will be used.

The platform from the next-generation Mondeo is the most obvious candidate.

Jaguar may not have produced a front-drive car before but the chairman of Jaguar, Mr. Scheele, said it would not be a problem for the brand if it did.

He said a front-drive car would not harm the company's "core marque values" as long as it had similar ride and handling characteristics of other Jaguars.

Just where X400 could be built is a "thorny issue", Scheele said.

Company insiders have said that both the United States and Germany were sited as possible countries where it could be built.

A spokesman for Jaguar, Colin Cook, admitted recently that Jaguar already had capacity constraints at its British plants in Browns Lane, Coventry and Castle Bromwich in central England, and that switching to a foreign plant may be necessary.

Scheele said company research had shown that only Japanese customers insisted a Jaguar must be built in the UK.

Other customers were more concerned about quality than manufacturing location.

If the X400 is approved, it would take about four years to develop the car.

When the X200 arrives, the Castle Bromwich plant will be capable of making 120,000 cars to 130,000 cars.

The X200 is expected to more than double volume to 100,000 cars a year, leaving little space for the X400.

If this proves to be uneconomic at Jaguar's existing plants, a modified Ford facility is expected to be the next choice. This plant is expected to be outside Britain.

Scheele also said the company had no plans to make a BMW Z3 or Benz SLK competitor and plans for a Jaguar off-roader had been canned.

The X200 will only be sold as a sedan.