Sales slump again for struggling Jaguar Land Rover

Total sales were down 13.3 per cent on April 2018 at 39,185 vehicles.

The new figures come as Indian owner Tata Motors has denied reports that it is preparing to sell Jaguar Land Rover to French car group PSA.

In the UK car sales were up 12.1 per cent in April and North America saw a 9.6 per cent improvement, but in China there was a 45.7 per cent year-on-year decline. Overall sales in Europe were also down 5.5 per cent.

JLR, which has its £1 billion engine manufacturing centre at the i54 to the north of Wolverhampton, said the introduction of the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE and the sales ramp up of the new Range Rover Evoque continue to be encouraging, but retail sales of other models were lower

Felix Brautigam, JLR chief commercial officer, said: “Although this was a tough month for us due to continuing pressures in China, we are delighted to see good growth in the UK and the US. Once again we strongly outperformed the UK market and the US marked its best ever April sales. This reflects the strength of our brands and continued demand for our unique and evolving product line-up.

“This month was a historic milestone for Jaguar, with the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE winning an extraordinary hat trick of awards – the 2019 World Car of the Year, World Car Design of the Year and World Green Car – which no car has ever done before. This is in addition to scooping the European Car of the Year and the China Green Car of the Year 2019 trophies, to name just a few of the accolades for the I-PACE. We continue to be encouraged by the market response to this incredible vehicle.

“At Land Rover, sales of the new Range Rover Evoque luxury compact SUV are starting to ramp up, as it is launched in an increasing number of countries following its global debut at the end of last year. In April, we were excited to premiere the China-produced version at the Shanghai auto show, tailored to the needs of our discerning customers in this important market.”

Jaguar retail sales in April were 11,462 vehicles – down 13.7 per cent year-on-year and Land Rover sold 27,723 - down 13.1 per cent.

For 2019 to the end of April total JLR sales are 198,101, which is down 9.1 per cent compared to the same four months last year.

Leaked documents have suggested that a sale of struggling JLR to French car group PSA, which owns Peugeot, Citroen and Vauxhall, could be imminent.

It has been reported that a “post-sale integration document”, which outlines the benefits of the two companies joining forces, is already in circulation and the firms are exploring the detail of cost savings after a tie-up.

Tata Motors says that there is no truth to rumours that it was looking to divest its stake in JLR which it bought in 2008 from Ford,

JLR has made redundancies across its business this year. It announced plans in Januaury to cut UK job numbers by 4,500 as part of a £2.5bn savings plan.