Jaguar ready to leap back to pre-crisis sales

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the British unit of India's biggest vehicle maker Tata Motors, aims to return to pre-crisis sales levels with Jaguar once the global downturn is over, JLR's head told a magazine.

"In the past, Jaguar built more than 100,000 vehicles per year. We can return to such levels once the crisis is over," David Smith told German weekly WirtschaftsWoche in an interview.

JLR's 2009 sales fell about 30 percent to roughly 260,000 vehicles, 65,000 of which were Jaguars, Smith said.

"We were profitable before the crisis broke out and we want to get there again as soon as possible," he added.

JLR's net loss narrowed to 60 million pounds ($95.71 million) in its fiscal second quarter, from 240 million pounds a year ago, Tata Motors said in November.

Demand for the new Jaguar XJ -- which will hit dealerships in Germany in February -- was already very strong, Smith told the magazine. "Interest in the car is gigantic, we already have 3,000 advance orders," he said.