Jaguar Land Rover sales suffer from pandemic

The luxury car manufacturer, which has its engine manufacturing centre at the i54 where it employs more than 1,000, sold 72,067 vehicles in the three months, which included temporary closures of its UK plants in April and much of May..

Lockdowns around the world and shutdowns of most retailers also contributed to the fall in sales.

Sales improved each month and June's sales were 35,334 – down 24.9 per cent on a year before.

Chief commercial officer Felix Brautigam said: "While the Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact the global auto industry, we are pleased to see initial green shoots of recovery.

"We are working alongside our retailers, planning for gradual recovery as lockdowns relax and economies respond.

"Through the quarter we continued to introduce new and updated Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, to very positive response."

New models include the Land Rover Defender and JLR said customer response had been overwhelmingly positive and, as retailers have come back on line, there has been a surge of interest in the 4X4 and 1,970 were sold last month.

For the year to the end of June JLR sales were 183,936 - a fall of 36 per cent.

For the first quarter of the financial year 55,280 Land Rovers were sold – down 37.9 per cent – and 18,787 Jaguars – 52.5 per cent fewer.

JLR, which is due to release financial results for the three months later in July, said that more than 95 per cent of its retailers worldwide are now open or partially open and all of the company’s plants have resumed manufacturing, with the exception of the Castle Bromwich facility, which will gradually restart in August.

All plants are operating on single shifts with social distancing measures in place and production ramping up as demand grows.

But earlier this week it was announced that more than 2,000 workers involved in JLR's supply chain are facing redundancy.

Sales recoveries in June for China and North America were particularly encouraging. China sales were only 7.4 per cent lower year-on-year and North America sales were up 2.2 per cent.

UK sales were down 31.8 per cent in the first month of retailers reopening and Europe was down 52.5 per cent.

Sales of all models were lower year-on-year, but the best-selling vehicles were the Range Rover Sport, the new Range Rover Evoque and the Land Rover Discovery Sport.