New Delhi, May 15 -- Tata Motors Ltd is looking to assemble the Land Rover Defender in India, a top executive said, in a move expected to lower its price and heighten competition with rival luxury SUVs in India. The Defender is Land Rover's best-selling model in the country, where Tata Motors already offers a range of high-end vehicles from its UK subsidiary. "Most of our models are locally assembled in India at the Pune plant," JLR's chief financial officer Richard Molyneux said on Tuesday, referring to its Range Rover series during a post-earnings call for the January to March period. "For Defender, plans are in process to assemble the cars locally," he said. "We want to tap demand from ultra-high-net-worth individuals in the upcoming years and grow presence in the Indian market." Analysts expect it could lead to a price reduction of over Rs.20 lakh. Currently, the ex-showroom price of Defender variants ranges from Rs.1.05 crore to Rs.2.79 crore. That would help the sport utility vehicle (SUV) compete in the sub-Rs.1 crore range to take on German brand Audi's Q7. Molyneux's announcement comes a week after the country announced a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the UK, under which tariffs on completely built units will go down to 10% from 110% under a quota. The FTA marks a trade success for the two countries at a time JLR awaits clarity on duties in the US, among its largest markets. JLR contributes roughly about 69% to the overall revenue of Tata Motors. "Most of the current models being sold in India have local assembly," he said in the call. "However, for our future models, India becomes an attractive market due to the free-trade agreement." Currently, the Defender is manufactured at JLR's £1 billion facility in Nitra, Slovakia. It imports the completely built units into the country, which attracts effective tariffs of 110%. However, inbound shipments of completely knocked down (CKD) units attract 16.5% effective tariffs (prior to the FTA). JLR's plan to assemble the SUV comes a year after it started locally assembling its Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models at its Pune plant. That brought down the ex-showroom price by Rs.44 lakh to Rs.2.36 crore for one of its models. A Range Rover Sport's ex-showroom price fell from Rs.1.69 crore to Rs.1.40 crore. Mint could not independently ascertain when the company plans to start the local assembly of the Defender. Queries emailed to Tata Motors Ltd and Jaguar Land Rover remained unanswered. The British brand, acquired by Tata Motors in 2008 for $2.8 billion, recorded the highest-ever retail sales in the country last financial year. Its volumes jumped 40% to reach 6,183 cars, with the January-March quarter recording a 110% growth to 1,793....