Record global sales figures for Jaguar Land Rover
JAGUAR Land Rover has announced record full year global sales for 2015, with a 5% increase on the previous year – which was itself a record.
The announcement is significant because it means even the decline in the Chinese market has failed to dent the manufacturer’s performance.
Figures released this morning show the company sold 487,065 vehicles around the world – the sixth successive year of growth in sales. The 2015 performance is double that of 2009.
The figures follow the announcement of record sales in the UK during 2015.
Commenting on the full year performance Andy Goss, Jaguar Land Rover Group Sales Operations Director, said: “This has been a significant year for Jaguar Land Rover, with updated models being introduced across the range, as well as the addition to our portfolio of the completely new Jaguar XE and Land Rover Discovery Sport.
“Customer response has been extremely positive, resulting in record retails across UK, North America and Europe. The appeal of our Jaguars and Land Rovers has also been recognised through over 95 global awards in 2015, including 15 for the Land Rover Discovery Sport and 19 for the Jaguar XE alone.”
He said 2016 promised to be another exciting year for the business, with the start of sales of the Range Rover Evoque Convertible and the Jaguar F-Pace crossover, along with further new and refreshed vehicles.
The company will be delighted with the performance in what was a tough year for the business.
It began badly when it had to scrap a significant number of new vehicles following the grounding of the cargo ship Hoegh Osaka in the Solent.
However, it was the explosion at the Chinese port of Tianjin in August which severely impacted its Chinese sales. Not only did the tragedy claim 114 lives but the company lost almost 6,000 vehicles in the blast. The devastation had a major impact on Q3 for the company; set to post a significant pre-tax profit, the near £250m hit resulted in a major loss.
However, the company bounced back and the fact it achieved record figures in the traditional Western economies of the UK, North America and Europe is hugely significant and suggests a possible shift in its global business.
Sales to Europe and UK each topped 100,000 vehicles for the first time ever: Europe was the company’s largest sales region in 2015 with sales of 110,298, up 28% year on year.
With a growth of 21% over 2014 figures, a total of 100,636 Jaguars and Land Rovers were bought by customers in the UK. North American sales of 94,066 were 25% up on the previous year.
The company said the growth in these markets offset the performance in China and other overseas markets, at 92,474 and 89,592 down 24% and 7% year-on-year respectively.
