Record US sales for Jaguar Land Rover in January
There was some good news for Jaguar Land Rover with the luxury car giant reporting another record month for sales in the United States.
It sold 10,463 cars in January – up 16 per cent from a year before and it was the best ever January sales month for the Land Rover brand with 7,385, which was 15 per cent ahead for the year.
Land Rover Discovery – 819 – and Range Rover Sport – 2,004 – had record sales and Range Rover sales were up 100 per cent year-on-year at 1,651.
Jaguar sales were 3,078, an 18 percent increase from 2,604 units in January last year. The award-winning Jaguar F-PACE continued to lead the brand’s performance with 1,465 units sold, up 24 per cent for the year.
“We are pleased to have achieved our best January sales month ever for Jaguar Land Rover in the US” said Joe Eberhardt, president and chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover North America.
“Our business is well positioned as our sports utility vehicle sales continue to surge with record breaking sales results for both Range Rover Sport and Land Rover Discovery. With the debut of the Range Rover Evoque SUV in February, we look forward to keeping this momentum going in the new year."
The US boost comes after JLR announced it was to halt work at its engine plant for a week in the wake of Brexit.
Britain’s biggest car maker will pause production at its i54 factory between April 8 and 12, blaming “potential Brexit disruption”. Car production plants at Castle Bromwich, Solihull and Halewood will also pause manufacturing over the same period.
It was also announced last month that JLR plans to cut 4,500 jobs as part of £2.5 billion cost savings.
This was on top of 1,500 workers who left the company, which is part of the Indian Tata group, last year.
JLR employs 44,000 workers in the UK and management, marketing and administrative roles are expected to be hardest hit in the new wave of job losses.
The car maker is facing challenging times, with sales in China slowing down. The company launched a voluntary redundancy programme following its job cuts announcement.
Despite the cuts it will invest in manufacturing new electric drive units at Wolverhampton.
In the US, the 2019 Land Rover model line-up features six models: two within the Discovery family, and four within the Range Rover Family.
