Jaguar Land Rover is driven to new heights by 40 per cent surge in Chinese sales
Jaguar Land Rover roared to a record year in 2016 and it shows no sign of taking its foot off the pedal.
The British car giant has reported its best ever February retail sales of 40,978 vehicles, up nine per cent on the same period last year.
It was driven by strong demand in China and North America, where sales were up 40 per cent and 16 per cent respectively. They also rose 14 per cent in the UK.
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It wasn't a clean sweep of bumper figures though, as Europe and other overseas markets were down two per cent and seven per cent respectively.
And while sales of Jaguar vehicles rocketed 81 per cent year-on-year, delivering 12,203 vehicles, Land Rover sales were down six per cent with 28,775 vehicles sold.
Andy Goss, Jaguar Land Rover Group sales operations director, said: "I am delighted to see another historic month of sales, thanks in large part to impressive performances in China and North America as well as continued customer demand for the Jaguar F-PACE and Discovery Sport."
The all-new Land Rover Discovery went on sale in February and the already strong demand makes us optimistic that it will more than outweigh sales of the previous model.
Earlier this month, the firm unveiled its new addition to the Range Rover family, the Velar, which is being built exclusively in Britain.
In January, the UK's largest car manufacturer announced global sales of 583,313 vehicles, selling one car every minute. Sales have almost tripled since 2009.
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Jaguar sales specifically rose 77 per cent for the year, retailing 148,730 vehicles – primarily driven by sales of the Jaguar F-Pace, XE and XF. Land Rover also retailed a record 434,583 vehicles for the year, up eight per cent on 2015.