10% annual sales growth for JLR
SALES at Jaguar Land Rover rose 10% during 2014 despite certain export markets proving to be challenging.
In the year-to-date, the Indian-owned company has sold 421,286 vehicles, although November bucked the yearly trend and declined 2%. The group sold 36,621 vehicles last month and it has blamed the decline on “product launch factors”.
The figures for December will also make for interesting reading, especially as JLR, in common with several other producers such as Audi, opted last week to suspend sales in Russia due to the spectacular decline of the rouble.
The rouble has lost more than 40% of its value since June, heralding Russia’s biggest financial crisis since 1998. Economic sanctions against the country are also doing little to improve the situation.
The impact on car makers exposed to the market has even been described as a “bloodbath” by the head of Nissan.
JLR has not commented officially on the situation but it is thought to be playing a waiting game, preferring to see the rouble stabilise before resuming sales in the country.
Commenting on the November performance Andy Goss, Jaguar Land Rover group sales operations director said: “Calendar year to date, we continue to see strong demand for our products, delivering solid growth, up an impressive 10% versus last year and performing well across many of our key markets.”
JLR, owned by India’s Tata Group, employs nearly 5,000 people at Halewood, Merseyside, where the Evoque and Discovery Sport are produced.
