Tata Motors' JLR breaks global sales record

Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has achieved a record global sales in 2015 with the premium luxury vehicles' manufacturer retailing 4,87,065 vehicles, its highest figure yet and a five per cent increase from previous year.

The record-breaking sales figure came despite a slowdown in China with Britain overtaking Beijing as the luxury car brand's most important market.

The two brands together sold more than 1,00,000 vehicles in the UK in a calendar year for the first time last year, which included a 30 per cent increase in British sales of Jaguar, much of it attributable to the launch of the XE.

Last year, sales in China slumped by 24 per cent to 92,474, as a result of a slowdown in what is among the world's fastest growing automotive market.

Europe was the company's largest sales region in 2015 with sales of 110,298, up 28 per cent year on year; and with a growth of 21 per cent over 2014 figures, a total of 100,636 Jaguars and Land Rovers were bought by customers in the UK.

Andy Goss, Jaguar Land Rover's group sales operations director, said the new figures meant that the group had doubled sales since 2009 because of new launches.

"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 (to the XE and the Discovery Sport) has been extremely positive and there have been record retails across the UK, North America and Europe," he said.

"2016 promises to be another exciting year, with the start of sales of the Range Rover Evoque Convertible and the Jaguar F-Pace, along with further all-new and refreshed vehicles," he added. The group said that US sales were up by 25 per cent while sales in Europe - where Jaguar Land Rover has traditionally struggled in markets such as Germany - rose by 28 per cent. Highlights from 2015 saw Land Rover sell more than 4,00,000 vehicles for first time, a 6 per cent increase compared to 2014 and Jaguar achieve its best performance in a decade with sales of 83,986 vehicles, a 3 per cent rise.

Land Rover's new Discovery Sport, which replaced the Freelander2, proved a hit with sales of more than 10,000 a month, second only to the best-selling Range Rover Evoque.

During last year, JLR announced the doubling of the size of its UK engine manufacturing centre and confirmed that it had agreed a manufacturing partnership with Magna Steyr to build some future vehicles in Graz, Austria.

In March 2015, it confirmed a 600-million pounds investment across its Castle Bromwich advanced manufacturing plant, Whitley advanced design and development centre, and the National Automotive Innovation Centre to support product creation and advanced vehicle manufacturing in the UK.