JLR profits and sales on the rise

The £435 million profit figure was on sales of £6.9 billion for the three months to the end of June – up 57 per cent year-on-year

The order book remainsstrong with over 185,000 client orders at quarter end, reducing from 200,000 at the end of March as chip and other supply constraints continue to improve.

Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Defender demand remains strong and accounted for 76 per cent of the order book.

JLR owner Tata has announced that a new £4 billion UK gigafactory will provide JLR with a stable and secure supply of battery cells to electrify JLR’s next generation modern luxury vehicles.

The JLR engine manufacturing centre at Wolverhampton will assemble the electric drive units utilising the batteries.

JLR's first reimagined modern luxury electric vehicle to go on sale will be a Range Rover BEV, available for pre-order later this year and on sale in 2024.

JLR chief executive Adrian Mardell said: “I am pleased to report a third consecutive quarter of strengthening financial performance for JLR. We have had a strong start to the financial year and delivered our highest production levels in nine quarters and our highest first quarter cashflow on record. This is testament to the thousands of determined people in the business working tirelessly to deliver every aspect of our Reimagine strategy.”

Richard Molyneux, JLR’s chief financial officer, added: “The good financial performance in the quarter reflects the strength of our luxury brands. The record Q1 cashflow of £451 million brings our net debt down to £2.5 billion on our journey to become net cash positive. Looking ahead, we aim to deliver continuing improvements in results by executing our Reimagine strategy and generating the cash to invest in our electric future.”

Second quarter production and cashflow is expected to be lower than the first, reflecting the annual summer plant shutdowns while wholesales and profitability are expected to be more in line with recent quarters.