Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover has revealed its sales numbers for the year 2012. The British carmaker has sold 358,000 vehicles, up 30 percent as compared to last year. Jaguar Land Rover is present in 177 markets globally with China being its largest market. Sales in China surged 71 percent in 2012 with JLR selling 71,940 units. The UK was the next best-selling market for the company where it sold 68,333 units, up by 19 percent. JLR’s third best sales numbers were seen in the USA where 55,675 vehicles rolled out of its showrooms, up by 11 percent. The fourth and fifth best sales performance was in Russia and Germany respectively.
Land Rover’s new Range Rover Evoque SUV, which was launched last year, clocked 108,598 units in one full year of production, making it the best-selling Land Rover model in its first year of production. The SUV maker has also seen good sales numbers from its other models such as the Discovery, up by 3 percent, and the Range Rover Sport, up by 4 percent. The new-generation Range Rover has also been launched in many global markets and deliveries have commenced as well. It is also available in India and is priced at around Rs 1.7 crore.
Jaguar also reported a sales increase in 2012 as compared to the previous year. Sales were up 6 percent globally. According to Jaguar, this was possible due to the recent launches of derivatives of the XF saloon such as the 2.2-litre diesel variant and the XF Sportbrake. Jaguar's top five markets were the UK, United States, China, Germany and Russia which combined equated to 71 percent of sales for the year. The XF continued to do well with sales globally up 13 percent and the introduction of the XJ and XF with all-wheel drive was been well received in some international markets such as the US.
JLR has announced a recruitment campaign which will help create as many as 800 jobs in the UK to support its future model line-up. It has also confirmed a US$600 million (Rs 3,287.7 crore) investment programme for its Solihull site that includes installation of an all-new body-shop for the new Range Rover and also upgrades to its paint application technologies, trim assembly, warehousing and JLR’s first customer handover centre.
JLR also plans to invest around £2 billion (Rs 17,686.74 crore) in its products and facilities globally in the financial year to March 2013. It is also in process of building an all-new engine facility in Staffordshire Business Park, UK which will create 750 new jobs. JLR is also working on plans to extend its global production footprint particularly in India and China. CKD assembly of the Land Rover Freelander started in India last year.
Rivan RS 
Viraaj Bhatnagar
Uday Singh
Suraj Viswanathan
