Friday 8 January 2016

JLR sees 5 per cent sales growth for 2015


JaguarLandRover (JLR) has achieved its best ever full year global sales performance in 2015, retailing 487,065 vehicles, up 5 five cent on the prior year.


This is JLR’s sixth successive year of growth in sales, with retails in 2015 more than double the 2009 figure. Approximately 50 per cent of sales are diesel, according to a company spokesman.

JLR’s global performance for the full year 2015 shows record retail sales in UK, North America and Europe tempered by falls in China and elsewhere. 

 In 2014, JLR sold 462,678 vehicles, up 9 per cent. Of that, Jaguar sold 81,570 vehicles and Land Rover sold 381,108 vehicles.

Sales to Europe and UK in 2015 each topped 100,000 vehicles for the first time:  Europe was the company’s largest sales region in 2015 with sales of 110,298, up 28 per cent year on year. With a growth of 21 per cent over 2014 figures, a total of 100,636 Jaguars and Land Rovers were bought by customers in the UK. 

North American sales of 94,066 were 25 per cent up on previous year. 

The growth in these markets offset the performance in China and other overseas markets, at 92,474 and 89,592 down 24 per cent and 7 per cent year-on-year respectively.  This reflected local market conditions, model transitions and the impact of the major industrial explosion at the Chinese port of Tianjin in August. 

Land Rover retailed over 400,000 vehicles for the first time, with sales of 403,079, or 6 per cent up on 2014. The company sold more Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports in 2015 than ever before, on the back of continued strong customer demand. 

Sales of the new Discovery Sport beginning in early 2015 have increased to over 10,000 per month, second only to the best-selling Range Rover Evoque.  

Jaguar sales were up 3 per cent for the year, retailing 83,986 vehicles.  This was the brand’s strongest full-year performance in a decade, driven by sales of the Jaguar XF and the new Jaguar XE, which has recently been shortlisted for the European Car of The Year 2016. 

The recently launched lightweight aluminium Jaguar XF  and 2016 Model Year XJ , together with the launch in 2016 of the new Jaguar XE in North America and the F-PACE performance crossover worldwide are expected to accelerate Jaguar sales growth.

                                     A role for Magna Steyr

Last year was also a significant year for the expansion of the company’s manufacturing footprint to support continued growth, most recently with the announcement that Jaguar Land Rover will be the first British carmaker to open a manufacturing facility in Slovakia. 

The year also saw significant progress with the construction of Jaguar Land Rover’s first manufacturing plant in Brazil; local production of the Land Rover Discovery Sport will commence there in 2016. 

During the year the company announced the doubling of the size of its UK Engine Manufacturing Centre and confirmed that it had agreed a manufacturing partnership with Magna Steyr to build some future vehicles in Graz, Austria.

It will be recalled that Magna Steyr had an agreement with Aston Martin to build the Rapide. The deal, which proved costly to Aston Martin, had to be curtailed following poor sales performance  

In March 2015, JLR reaffirmed its long-term commitment to the UK, with confirmation of a £600 million investment across its Castle Bromwich Advanced Manufacturing Plant, Whitley Advanced Design and Development Centre and the National Automotive Innovation Centre to support product creation and advanced vehicle manufacturing.

The company says these mark “significant steps” in JLR’s strategy to become “a truly global business and meet the growing international demand for its two iconic brands”.

The company has more than doubled its headcount over the past few years to 37,000 globally, of which 35,000 are in the UK.




















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