Car sales up and loss reduced at Jaguar Land Rover
Jaguar Land Rover saw an 11.8 per cent rise in car sales in the second quarter of its financial year.
The luxury car maker's pre-tax loss also reduced to £173 million from £302m a year earlier.
JLR, which has its engine manufacturing centre at the i54 to the north of Wolverhampton, saw revenue rise 36 per cent to £5.3 billion. It was up 20 per cent on the first quarter.
Retail sales for the quarter were 88,121 vehicles with China up 38 per cent and North America 27 per cent. UK sales fell seven per cent.
The improved results reflect strong model mix and pricing with wholesales of 75,000 up 17.6 per cent on the year, but lower than planned as computer chip supply constraints continued.
The production ramp up of New Range Rover and New Range Rover Sport improved with 13,537 units wholesaled in the quarter, up from 5,790 in the first quarter.
Strong demand continuing with the client order book now at 205,000 units. The three most profitable models – the New Range Rover, New Range Rover Sport and Defender – account for over 70 per cent of the order book.
Increasing partnership agreements with semiconductor suppliers are expected to deliver improving production volumes in the second half of the 2022-2023 financial year and beyond.
Thierry Bollore, JLR’s chief executive, said: “We delivered a stronger financial performance in the second quarter as production of our new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport ramped up, improving revenue, margins and cash flow, despite continuing semiconductor constraints.
“Demand for our most profitable and desired vehicles remains strong and we expect to continue to improve our performance in the second half of the year, as new agreements with semiconductor partners take effect, enabling us to build and deliver more vehicles to our clients.”
