Jaguar Land Rover breaks sales record

[Jaguar Owners Club]

The UK-based car maker, owned by Indian steel giant, Tata, said sales had been boosted by strong demand for the new Jaguar F-Type and Range Rover Sport.

Jaguar Land Rover has accelerated to its best ever sales performance with more than 425,000 vehicles sold last year, up almost a fifth on the previous 12 months.

Jaguar Land Rover has accelerated to its best ever sales performance with more than 425,000 vehicles sold last year, up almost a fifth on the previous 12 months.

The UK-based car maker, owned by Indian steel giant, Tata, said sales had been boosted by strong demand for the new Jaguar F-Type and Range Rover Sport.

On the Chinese mainland, its largest market, sales increased by almost a third to 95,000, while sales in the UK, the second largest market, increased by 14pc to 78,000.

 

Andy Goss, the group sales operations director, hailed a “great year” with sales boosted in every global region by “some incredibly exciting new models launched to customers across the world”, including new engines and other enhancements to the existing line up.

Jaguar, the quintessential British car marque, was the fastest growing premium car brand in Germany, the United States and India last year.

 

The sales debut of the Jaguar F-Type, combined with strong demand for the XF saloon, resulted in volumes increasing by 42pc to nearly 77,000 vehicles last year.

About 6,000 F-Types were sold last year at an average retail price of £58,000.

Strong demand across Asia and China resulted in a new record for Land Rover sales too. The Range Rover Sport model reached levels last seen in 2007 and buoyed by the Range Rover Evoque model, total sales increased 15pc to 348,000 for the year.

 

The acceleration in acitivity highlights the transformation of the business under its Indian owners, who bought the Midlands based car maker five years ago from Ford for £1.3bn. That is less than the UK company made in profits over the last 12 months.

 

In November, Jaguar Land Rover reported half-year pre-tax profits for the six months ending in September up 42pc to £1.08bn, with revenues up 26pc to £8.71bn.

JLR made £1.68bn profits on £15.8bn revenues for the whole of its last financial year.

 

By John Ficenec

12:01AM GMT 12 Jan 2014