JLR hits new January sales record

The figure of 47,693 was four per cent up on January last year for JLR, which now has its engine manufacturing centre at the i54 to the north of Wolverhampton.

It followed a record 2016 for the luxury car group which saw sales rise by 20 per cent to 583,313 vehicles.

The January sales included 13,949 Jaguars – up 76 per cent – and 33,744 Land Rovers, a rise of 11 per cent.

Strong sales across North America and China helped drive JLR, which makes cars at Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Halewood, to its strongest ever global January sales

The month's performance saw improved sales of the Land Rover Discovery Sport, the Range Rover Sport and the Jaguar F-PACE.

Jaguar LR delivered solid retail sales growth across many of its key regions with North America up 29 per cent, China up 14 per cent and the UK up three months. Europe and other overseas markets were down for the month.

Andy Goss, group sales operations director said: "Impressive performances across North America and China have boosted our sales this month, helping us to achieve record January results. Collectively, these two key markets have achieved almost 23,000 sales.

"Land Rover sales are set to strengthen in the coming months, as the all-new Discovery hits global dealerships."

The best-seller for the month was the Discovery Sport, with 10,454 vehicles sold, up 10 per cent year-on-year.

Over the past five years, JLR has doubled sales and employment, more than tripled turnover and invested over £12 billion in new product creation and capital expenditure.

JLR opened its £500 million engine manufacturing centre at i54 in October 2014 and the diesel engines made there are used in all the new Jaguars.