Sales of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles saw a rise in the three months to September 30 as the supply of semiconductor chips continues to improve. Tony McDonough reports
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is reporting an increase in retail and wholesale sales volumes for the three months to September 30.
JLR employs around 3,700 people at Halewood in Merseyside assembling the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque. It reported pre-tax losses of £524m for the three months to June 30 despite strong demand for its vehicles worldwide.
For the past couple of years the company has been hampered by a global shortage of semiconductor computer chips, essential to modern vehicles. However, JLR has now put new agreements in place and is seeing an improvement in sales.
Retail sales for the quarter September 30 were 88,121 vehicles, an increase of 9,296 compared with the previous quarter. Compared to the first quarter, retail sales were higher in China (+38%), North America (+27%) and Overseas (+14%) but were lower in the UK (-7%) and Europe (-10%).
Wholesale volumes were 75,307 units in the period (excluding the China joint venture), up 4% compared to the previous quarter.
Its statement said: “This improvement was lower than planned, primarily due to a lower than expected supply of specialised chips from one supplier which could not be readily re-sourced in the quarter.
“This was mitigated partially by further prioritisation of production to the highest margin products, while new agreements with semiconductor suppliers are expected to enable sales improvements in the second half of the fiscal year.
The production ramp up of New Range Rover and New Range Rover Sport improved with 13,537 units wholesale in the quarter, up from 5,790 in Q1. This is expected to continue to improve in the second half.
As at September 30, the total order book has grown to 205,000 units, up around 5,000 orders from June 30. Demand for the New Range Rover, New Range Rover Sport and Defender remain strong, accounting for over 145,000 of the 205,000 orders.
In September, LBN reported that JLR will retrain 29,000 employees as it looks to accelerate its push towards producing electric vehicles.