Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) sales continued to grow in the first quarter of 2017, totalling 137,463 units worldwide, which is 3.5% up on the same period of 2016.
Demand grew by 30% in China, helped by the success of the market-specific Jaguar XFL, which boosted XF sales by 22%. North American sales were the second most improved, with numbers up by 16%.
UK sales dropped by 14%, likely impacted by recent changes in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) rates, which substantially increased rates due on cars costing more than £40,000. This sales decrease prevented an improvement on European sales compared with the first quarter of 2016.
Despite this, Coventry-based JLR’s first quarter revenue was up by 5% to £5.6 billion, with pre-tax profits totalling £595 million. Of this, £437m came from changes to the company’s pension plans, but JLR says that gain was offset by “the seasonality of sales in Q1 following a strong Q4 of 2016”, as well as launch and investment costs.
JLR CEO Ralf Speth said: "In challenging market conditions, we are continuing to plan for profitable, sustainable growth. Our teams have been hard at work creating world-class cars in an unprecedented level of launch activity for Jaguar Land Rover.”
JLR is planning on investing £4bn on new products, research and development and manufacturing in the coming years. It will launch the Jaguar I-Pace next year and is soon to open a new factory in Slovakia.
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Oh Autocar not again!
This is an incrediblty misleading headline. JLR's quarterly pre tax profit actually fell from £348m to £157m when you strip out the change of accounting treatment on the pension and other one off items. It is a heck of shame when Sky have more accurate headlines and numbers than Autocar:
Jaguar Landrover reports 14% drop in UK sales
Profit before tax and one-off items was £157m, down from £348m the previous year, mainly due to higher costs and pay increases.
Oh Autocar not again!
This is an incrediblty misleading headline. JLR's quarterly pre tax profit actually fell from £348m to £157m when you strip out the change of accounting treatment on the pension and other one off items. It is a heck of shame when Sky have more accurate headlines and numbers than Autocar:
Jaguar Landrover reports 14% drop in UK sales
Profit before tax and one-off items was £157m, down from £348m the previous year, mainly due to higher costs and pay increases.
Disco rear
probably more likely the awful new Disco rear end is putting off buyers!