Summary: Jaguar Land Rover's sales performance in China

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai) - Ever since its acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover in August of 2008, Tata Motors has worked to improve both brands' competitiveness. However, Jaguar Land Rover's sales worldwide dropped a full 11 percent in fiscal year 2009-2010 (April 2009 to March 2010) to just 194,000 units. Among the two brands, Jaguar's sales fell the most, decreasing 24 percent to 47,400 units. Sales of Land Rovers, meanwhile, totaled 146,600, falling six percent. The sales decrease was attributed to the global banking crisis at the time, which affected automobile manufacturer all across the world.

As the financial crisis receded in fiscal year 2010-2011 (April 2010 to March 2011), the global automobile industry began to recover. Jaguar Land Rover's sales worldwide increased 25.6 percent, totaling 243,600 units. 53,000 of those sales were of Jaguar vehicles, while the remaining 188,600 were Land Rovers.

Jaguar Land Rover's sales are continuing to increase in the current fiscal year with sales from April 2011 to January 2012 totaling 245,700 units. The slight three percent fall in Jaguar sales was offset by 34 percent growth in Land Rover sales. 

According to Gasgoo.com (Chinese) statistics (as seen in the graph below), Jaguar Land Rover's global sales increased 21.6 percent in calendar year 2011. Jaguar and Land Rover sales totaled 49,962 (7.2 percent decrease from 2010) and 232,581 units (30.2 percent increase), respectively.

When comparing available yearly sales data from 2002 to 2011, it is clear that both brands have progressed in very different directions. From 2002 to 2004, both Jaguar and Land Rover's sales worldwide have been in a constant decline. However, from 2005, Land Rover sales began to showcase an upwards trend, despite the fact that the financial crisis had not yet entirely passed. In 2011 Land Rover's sales had already exceeded its pre-crisis high of 2007 (232,600 units compared to 226,400).

Jaguar's sales, meanwhile, have been in constant decline, falling from 130,300 units in 2004 to under 100,000 in 2005, and finally to 49,960 last year.

Despite mixed fortunes in their worldwide performance, both Jaguar and Land Rover have seen positive results in the Chinese market (as seen in the graph below). Sales of both brands have constantly grown from 640 and 1,415 units in 2005 to 5,976 and 36,087 units last year. Land Rover's sales grew an astounding 142.6 percent from 2009 to 2010, while Jaguar's sales almost doubled in 2011.

Chinese sales accounted for 12 percent and 15.5 percent of Jaguar and Land Rover's respective volumes in 2011, compared to 0.7 percent and 0.8 percent in 2005. It is important to note that, without increasing sales in China, the fall in Jaguar's sales last year may have been a lot more severe than it actually was.