Jaguar Land Rover marks a record by selling half a million cars in a year

Jaguar Land Rover had half a million car sold for the very first time ever in the previous year, assisted by strong need in Europe and North America.

The UK’s biggest automobile manufacturer, owned by Indian corporation Tata, saw pre-tax earnings fall as clients chose cheaper models and it suffered a downturn in the financially rewarding Chinese market.

Jaguar Land Rover had 521,571 cars sold in the year to the end of March, a 13% increase on the previous 12-month period. The increase, improved by the appeal of new designs such as the Jaguar XE, delivered a $499 million rise in incomes to $32.4 billion.

Despite the rising sales, pre-tax profits dropped from $3.7 billion to $2.2 billion. This included the $229 million cost of an explosion in the Chinese port of Tianjin last August, which compelled the company to write off nearly 6,000 cars.

Revenues were also influenced by lower first-half sales in China– a market where JLR makes larger earnings margins than in western economies– and investing in new jobs, such as a ₤ 1bn engine factory in Wolverhampton.

JLR is preparing to invest about $5.4 billion this year to increase production capacity, establish new innovations and make designs such as the Jaguar F-Pace and Range Rover Evoque Convertible.

The automaker has actually doubled automobile sales and personnel headcount over the past 5 years, overtaking Nissan to end up being the UK’s biggest automobile manufacturer by production.

The growth represents a significant turnaround from 2009, when the company found financial crisis following the banking crisis and subsequent economic downturn.

Chief executive, Ralf Speth, said: “Jaguar Land Rover has produced and sold more vehicles than at any time in our history.”