Jaguar sales up 200% as UK car market enjoys best February for 12 years

JAGUAR has continued its strong start to the year with UK sales up by a spectacular 208% during February, latest figures have shown.

The company sold 769 cars in February compared to just 249 in the same month last year.

The performance has upped the company’s market share to 0.92%, compared with just 0.32% in February 2015.
 
It is also a tremendous boost to the firm as it heads into the Geneva Motor Show and the launch of its latest model, the crossover F-Pace, for which it has high expectations.

The latest performance is not broken down by model but is undoubtedly due to the success of the entry level XE, which has proved itself more than a worthy contender to the position occupied for so long by the Big Three German companies with the BMW 3 Series, the Audi A4 and the Mercedes C Class.

The good news continues for the company as sales of Land Rovers and Range Rovers were also positive last month, with the Land Rover brand seeing its own sales increase by almost 61% to 1,275 vehicles (Feb 2015: 794).

Overall, it was another strong month for the car industry with new car registrations growing 8.4% compared with the same month in 2015.

Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show 83,395 new cars were registered last month, making it the biggest February since 2004.

Demand was up across all fuel types, with diesel and petrol registrations growing by 5.6% and 10.7% respectively, while alternatively-fuelled vehicles enjoyed an uplift of 19.9%.

Fleet demand dipped slightly compared with the private sector, but still retained its 53.1% majority share of new vehicles.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: “February is typically one of the quietest months of the year, ahead of March’s plate change, but this positive performance is encouraging and puts the sector in a good position for the coming 12 months.”

Other Midlands companies also fared well with Aston Martin up 171% as it sold 19 cars compared to the seven sold last February, while MG was up more than 63% although its volumes remain small with just 103 cars registered against the 63 12 months ago.

BMW was up 13%, while Audi rose 22% and Mercedes-Benz increased 19.5%.

Bentley also performed well, with sales up over 71%, with 48 cars sold in the month compared with 28 last February.

Perhaps the one surprise was a decline for MINI, with sales down almost 2% compared with February last year.

Ford retained its top place with sales giving it a 1% growth in market share to 13.81%; strongest rival was Vauxhall, where sales dipped 17.6% for the month compared with last February.

Volkswagen continued to struggle after last year’s emissions scandal, with sales down over 13% compared with last February.