Jaguar Land Rover sells a car every TWO MINUTES in new record

The West Midlands-based luxury carmaker, which makes its engines in Wolverhampton, sold 25,127 vehicles in March, up 16 per cent on the same month last year.

Jaguar had its strongest UK performance in over a decade, delivering 5,655 vehicles, up 45 per cent on the previous March. Land Rover retailed 19,472 vehicles in March, up nine per cent.

Jeremy Hicks, JLR's UK managing director said: "This has been a fantastic March for Jaguar Land Rover, with very strong performance from both brands, cementing our position as Britain's largest automotive manufacturer.

"Yet again, our success has been spearheaded by continued customer demand for the all-conquering Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport. In the UK alone, Jaguar sold almost 6,000 vehicles in March and increased sales by 76% in the first quarter, with the XE and the all-new XF appealing to more and more drivers."

The best sellers for Land Rover were the Evoque and the new Discovery Sport.

Jeremy Hicks added: "The rest of 2016 promises to be equally exciting, with the start of sales of the Range Rover Evoque Convertible and the Jaguar F-Pace, along with further all-new and refreshed vehicles from both brands coming to market." The company also has high hopes for major growth from the corporate fleet market.

JLR's success came in a month that saw overall UK car sales growing 5.3 per cent in March.

More than half a million people registered a new car following the biannual number plate change on March 1, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

At 518,707 cars, it is the most sales in a month since the current system for changing number plates was introduced in 1999. The best sellers were the Ford Fiest and the Vauxhall Corsa.

Demand was up year-on-year across all fuel types, with diesel and petrol registrations growing by 4.8% and 4.7% respectively, while alternatively fuelled vehicles enjoyed a rise of 21.5%.

Registrations by private customers rose by 3.8%, with fleet demand increasing by 6%.

SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said: "The sector's strong growth in March rounds off a robust first quarter as British consumers continue to demonstrate their appetite for new cars, especially ultra-low emission vehicles.

"This confidence should see registrations remain at a high but broadly stable level over the year, but could be undermined by political or economic uncertainty."

Year-on-year Volkswagen car sales halted a five-month slide after the diesel emissions scandal.

The brand had 38,694 registrations in March, up 0.02% on the same month in 2015.

But its year-to-date sales for 2016 remain 4.88% down on the same point last year.

Volkswagen Group admitted last September that 482,000 of its diesel vehicles in the US were fitted with defeat device software to switch engines to a cleaner mode when they were being tested for emissions.

The German-based manufacturer announced that 11 million vehicles were affected worldwide - including almost 1.2 million in the UK.