Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover today said it will start assembling of one variant of its luxury sedan XF in India, thereby bringing down the starting price of the model by over Rs 12 lakh.

The variant, which will be the second JLR model in India, with a 2.2 litre diesel engine will be introduced in India for the first time at an entry price of Rs 44.5 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai) and will be assembled at Tata Motors' Pune facility.

"The initial Pune-built Jaguar XF models will feature the company's acclaimed 2.2-litre diesel engine, which is coming to the Indian market for the first time. The Jaguars will be built alongside Land Rover Freelander 2 vehicles, which have been produced in Pune since May 2011," the company said in a statement.

Jaguar's currently available diesel and petrol XF variants with 3.0 litre and 5.0 litre engines are priced between Rs 57.15 lakh and Rs 1.03 crore (ex-showroom).

Commenting on the development, Jaguar Land Rover India Vice-President Rohit Suri said: "Our best-selling models in India are the Land Rover Freelander 2 and the Jaguar XF and this has driven the move to build these products locally.

"So we are now delighted to offer this car (XF) as a locally built product with a new engine for this market, which will enable us to provide our customers with a wider choice of competitively priced models".

Jaguar Land Rover India has reported 32 per cent growth in its sales in 2012 at 2,393 cars compared to 1,813 units in the previous year.