Jaguar Land Rover has announced another global sales rise – the day after revealing record UK figures – despite a sales fall in China.
The Midlands biggest manufacturer sold 487,065 vehicles across the globe last year – a rise of five per cent and a sixth successive year of growth.
The increase means sales have more than doubled in six years since JLR was taken over by Indian firm Tata Motors.
It came despite Chinese sales falling by almost a quarter, with JLR selling close to half of its vehicles in the UK and Europe.
It comes after the car giant revealed it had sold more than 100,000 vehicles in the UK in a single year for the first time.
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.”
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Mr Goss said 2016 promised to be another strong year, with the start of sales of the Range Rover Evoque Convertible and the Jaguar F-Pace.
On top of record UK figures, JLR also sold more than 100,000 cars in Continental Europe for the first time last year – a total of 110,298, up 28 per cent.
JLR’s rise has largely been on the back of emerging markets – but that changed last year.
Sales to China dipped 24 per cent last year, to 92,474 and other overseas markets fell seven per cent to 89,592.
JLR said this “reflected local market conditions...and the impact of the major industrial explosion at the Chinese port of Tianjin in August”.
North American sales of 94,066 were 25 per cent up on the previous year.
Across the year, Land Rover sold more than 400,000 vehicles for the first time, with a total of 403,079 – six per cent up on 2014.
Jaguar sales were up three per cent for the year, selling 83,986 vehicles, driven by the Jaguar XF and the new Jaguar XE.
While JLR has been on a global investment push in recent years, including most recently announcing a factory in Slovakia, the boost to European sales are welcome news for Midland employment.
The car giant announced a £600 million investment across the Midlands last year, largely in Castle Bromwich and Coventry.
The company’s headcount has more than doubled over the past few years to 37,000 globally, of which 35,000 are in the UK.
