News : Jaguar Land Rover celebrates record sales in 2013

Keith Adams

2014 Range Rovers
Range Rover line-up is JLR’s cash cow – everyone wants one, it seems. And the company is ensuring strong sales are being converted into development for the future

A case of Land Rover – good; Jaguar – must try harder, though…

Jaguar Land Rover has beaten its own record and had the best year yet in terms of sales. Total cars delivered in 2013 were 425,006, an improvement of 19% on last year – a brilliant all-round performance. Predictably, the strongest area of growth in the Asia Pacific and China, with sales up a whopping 30%. North America isn’t far behind with an improvement of 21%, followed by the UK with a rise of 14%.

Someone in the PR Department has been very busy counting the awards that have come JLR’s way in 2013 – claiming a total of 195 with Jaguar winning 80 and Land Rover taking no less than 115 gongs. The Range Rover Sport and Jaguar F-Type were debutantes in 2013 and both proved winners when it came to awards.

Land Rover proved to be the star of 2013 by some margin, selling a total of 348,338, and posting record deliveries for the Range Rover and Range Rover Evoque. The new Range Rover Sport equalled its 2007 performance, but did so with a model change-over mid-year – expect strong rises in 2014. Surprisingly, Freelander 2 also posted a 20% improvement in 2012 – expect much more from the new model, which rolls out late in 2014.

Jaguar’s more modest sales of 76,668 still represented a rise of 42% over 2012. With the F-Type coming on stream, it’s no surprise that this was the marque’s strongest year since 2005 – and that was when the ‘volume’ X-Type was still on the books. The improvement has been down to the introduction of the F-Type roadster – the Coupe will add many more sales in 2014. However, overall sales are low compared with Land Rover – and the arrival of the all-new aluminium baby Jaguar and SUV in 2015/2016 can’t come a moment too soon to drive the leaping cat towards its off-road bedfellows.

Dr. Ralf Speth, Jaguar Land Rover CEO, concluded: ‘2013 has proven to be a very positive year for Jaguar Land Rover thanks to continuing strong demand for vehicles across the range. Our unrelenting focus on design, technology, innovation and quality has seen Jaguar Land Rover reach global consumers in more markets than ever before thanks to its most desirable product line-up, enriched further in 2013 by the Jaguar F-Type and all-new Range Rover Sport.’

2014 Jaguars
Jaguar F-Type Coupe heads up CX-17 concept – the premium SUV is needed if yesterday if 2013’s sales figures are anything to go by…
Keith Adams

37 Comments

  1. Excellent well deserved success. Interesting isn’t it that Jaguar designed, funded, developed and put on sale a brace of new sports cars before they launched their much needed small car and the planned SUV? They didn’t say ‘we have no plans for the forseeable future to build a new sports car’, did they?

  2. Q. Why does Porsche make an SUV ?
    A. If you don’t follow the money, you’re dead, so they make a vehicle that has no connection to their sports cars other than the name

    So Jaguar need an SUV of the “crossover” type just like the Porsche Cayenne to get more people into the showrooms. I surely does pay a lot of Porsches costs and means the sports stuff can carry on. As far as I can see, Land Rover will carry on doing the traditional FWD stuff, and Jaguar will make the crossovers. BMW, VW, Porsche and Mercedes cannot all be wrong, surely ?

  3. @9
    Pitch a Range rover against German 4×4 and its apparent the Germans lack in the off road stakes hugely, that said all of them are mainly vanity vehicles, but as long as the British cars sell I could not care either way.

  4. Excellent news from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and I hear that their parent Tata has already approved the new XF model (I presume the replacement for the current generation model). Hopefully this year will see far more activity with the Land Rover brand itself as so much emphasis has been placed on Range Rover in recent years.

    As several commenters have already mentioned, quality needs to be an ongoing priority for all their models as the questionable reputation of previous generation models will inevitably have some impact on the latest models, no matter how good they might be. Resting on laurels is definitely not an option (for any car manufacturer).

    As for the new baby Jaguar saloon, to sit below the XF. Please, JLR, make sure it actually has world class standards of corrosion protection, trouble-free electricals and a high quality, durable finish to areas such as alloy wheels. I am shocked to discover how appalling Jaguar was when it came to anti corrosion initiatives on the X Type (apparently rust on wheel arches and sills is common), the electrics are temperamental (and usually costly to repair) while the paint and lacquer finish on alloy wheels easily bubbles up and wears away.

    So much has been achieved over the last six years through hard work by so many dedicated employees. We all want to JLR to prosper even more and continue to produce cars that will deliver high quality and reliability for many years. You certainly have the ability and commercial success to continue along this rosy path.

  5. I can remember some years ago a CAR magazine article about a small British company doing rather well producing 50 thousand vehicles a year, which they remark on as going under the radar as everyone at that time was talking about Rover and Jaguar sales.
    They were also criticized for aiming for only 200 thousand vehicles a year target.
    The storey of Land Rover is so remarkable and their vehicles so splendid. After so many years on bad news in the motor industry we really do seem to of turned the corner. “now we really are motoring”
    I now think its Jaguars time to shine and become a true BMW competitor. The stage if set with the F-type and the SUV and baby jag will be the driving force. Its good that JLR have no issues with a Jag SUV unlike BMW who have real problems with any car competing on “similar” platforms.
    It surely wont be long before JLR surpass Rover groups sales at their height. They are making such substantial profits too….. Simply outstanding. Hurrah..

  6. I still think the littlest one looks like a freelander thats been sat on by a mammoth – but then its probably just me.
    I’m sure that in fine BL/ARG etc tradition we will soon be due some marketing idiot shooting himself/herself in the foot, probably with a 30mm chaingun..
    It just seems all to good to be true to me – although to be fair having now had the experience of driving a LWB Defender and a SWB one – which are both deeply scary things to drive (like a two tonne skateboard on black ice over an oil slick) – I would imagine the new ones are at least better than that..
    I think the record for attempting to back out of a space with a new Range Rover at the local Sainsburys carpark in Stanway is 7 separate attempts – is it me or are they making the spaces smaller while they are making the cars bigger?

  7. The new sports cars are for the halo affect and design direction. Plus to keep Jag exclusive. I applaud Tata for standing by Jaguar. Anybody else would simply have closed it down. Had Ford been unable to sell it that would have happened. All eyes are looking at the new small Jag – the so-called Q_Type. This will define jaguars future – a big sales success propelling Jaguar as a genuine BMW/Mercdes/Audi rival or a very niche player based on Rover – sorry Land/Range Rover platforms.

  8. Deserved success! I love to hear others views on all makes/models. I am still wondering why Jaguar has a reputation for unreliability/quality issues. I manage a large fleet of cars since early eighties and my experience demonstrates that particularly since early to mid nineties Jaguar reliability was and continues to be in the top 3. X-types we had and there were many, have and continue to be the best car in terms of reliability. We have never over massive mileage had electrical gremlins or rust. I when asked to recomend a reliable, comfortable, low running costs car to friends immediately suggest the X-Type.

    Looking forward to seeing and using the new small Jaguar. Hoping its as good a product as the XF.

    Great web site and I enjoy everybodies imput, even those some of us may not agree with.

  9. @ Jemma – Comment #15:

    Quote: “I think the record for attempting to back out of a space with a new Range Rover at the local Sainsburys carpark in Stanway is 7 separate attempts – is it me or are they making the spaces smaller while they are making the cars bigger?”

    Range Rover (and Land Rovers too) steering locks have definitely improved in the last ten years, making them far easier to manoeuvre in and out of tighter spaces. However, I reckon new parking spaces are also suffering from urban cramming initiatives, while the average size of garages in new build properties certainly do not seem to be getting bigger!

  10. Jaguar – “must try harder”, that has to be one of the most stupid comments I have ever read on these pages, in less than 6 years, they have completely replaced their range, introduced a brand new sports car, Estate, and have one of teh most popular executive saloons on the market, they have also new plants in India and China, producing Jaguars, the increase in sales is huge, the outlay is even more.

    There is three brand new sector cars on the horizon, as well as new XF, XK and refreshed XJ, what more can they do, you might think it is easy to produce a car from scratch, but I think you know better than that, JLR have pulled off one of the biggest corporate turn around in recent history.

    On the horizon we have

    New Engine facility
    New plant in Brazil
    New Discovery 2 (Freelander2)
    New Discovery 4
    New Defender
    New XS
    New XF
    New XK
    New QT
    New ?? well wait and see (Autumn)

    So i think your comment is so blatantly incorrect, NO ONE in their wildest dreams would have forseen what has happened to JLR an I applaud them for what they have achieved in such a short time, shame others prefer headline grabbing comments rather than the facts.

  11. Indeed. Totally stupid.

    They’re on the up, but there’s lots of hard work left to do. Hence the need to try harder – and keep on trying. There’s a lot of catching up to do, especially in comparison with Land Rover, which still posts the lion’s share of JLR’s sales.

    Anyway, to all AROnline readers who find my work ‘stupid’ and ‘incorrect’, may I suggest visiting Jagboy’s own website, which gives a comprehensive view on the subject.

  12. @23 I dont get it. Everything you said in your post was so positive, a brilliant post given the storming results from JLR. It would be difficult to make it negative or “Stupid”

    Ratan Tata said “when considering buying Jaguar Land Rover I was only interested in Land Rover as I saw great potential in the brand. Jaguar seemed like a brand that had had its day but only when I really looked I understood that Jaguar was a racehorse that had never been allowed to race” or words to that effect.
    Lets now watch it race Keith because it surely will, everything is in place…..

  13. @ Keith Adams Comment #23:

    Quote: “They’re on the up, but there’s lots of hard work left to do. Hence the need to try harder – and keep on trying. There’s a lot of catching up to do, especially in comparison with Land Rover, which still posts the lion’s share of JLR’s sales.”

    Exactly, and no-one with any ounce of knowledge of the automotive industry should be offended by this as it is the plain and simple truth.

    This also reiterates my own point about the need for Jaguar and Land Rover to make quality a superordinate goal (in other words, don’t stand on your laurels because it is already far better than what is was ten years ago). However, I politely got a few shots fired at my tailplane for making this point. In this area alone, complacency is not an option and there is still some catching up to do.

    As most people on here will have realised from previous posts, I am hugely supportive of the achievements of Jaguar Land Rover, particularly with Land Rover who never cease to amaze me with their innovations and the enhanced desirability of their products.

    Re-reading JagBoy’s comment (Comment #22) about ‘what is new on the horizon’, what is the “New Discovery 2(Freelander 2)” (I though they had been launched in 1998 and 2006 respectively), new “XS” and the “QT”? Are these speculative identities for new Jaguar products?

  14. The Discovery is becoming a brand and will be realigned naming wise, the Freelander name is disappearing, and will be replaced with two seperate models along with a slightly larger Discovery 4.

    That means three distinct brands, Land ROver, Discovery and Range Rover, each will have a specific role to play.

    If you take my comments to heart, well, i cant help that, but if any other jaguar employee sat down to read that, I am sure they would be as “put out” by it as I was, the entire workforce has worked extremely hard over the last few years, only to have a piece that says they should try harder.

    I have never said Keith at any time your “work” is “stupid” or incorrect, I stated a point on a statement you made, anyway, I am not going to continue this, as i prefer not to be too negative, there are plenty of others on here that do that.

    I just felt your comment was totally out of place in an otherwise interesting and positive read.

  15. Jag boy you burying your head in the sand if you react like that to Keith’s comments. Fortunately for you and your colleagues your employer doesn’t and it’s down to them facing up to the companies failings and doing something about it that has put Jaguar firmly on the road to recovery

  16. What is truly amazing, is that 2-3 years ago, the talk was of which JLR plant would have to close, and whether Castle Bromwich or Sohihull would go!

  17. @27 – you have no idea what your on about, try re-reading the comments, how i can be classed as burying my head in the sand, when all i have done is promote what they have achieved in a short space of time is beyond reason.

  18. JagBoy

    Quote “I am not going to continue this, as i prefer not to be too negative, there are plenty of others on here that do that”.

    Yet you continue……..

  19. Jagboy : the increase in overall production and sales at JLR is very encouraging, but if you are thinking that as a result everything is wonderful in the world of JLR , then you are deluding yourself. There is a fine range of products, the XF being a class leader , and there is big demand for some of the model lines, Evoque in particular. However, customer service still has a way to go – recently a friend of mine had his wife’s brand new Evoque off the road for 3 weeks because a replacement ECU was not available from stock – and this despite his being rather well connected with the top people at Jaguar . This sort of problem must be tackled if the group as a whole is to achieve its potential

  20. @23 Shame JagBoy’s website appears to have simply reissued JLR’s own press release. Can’t have taken long.

    In contrast Keith, I think your article was well balanced and very informative – as ever…

  21. Quite an achievement to sell that number of vehicles. Selling nearly 1/2 million luxury cars is indicative of a growing market for western consumables in the far east. Id like to see a country by country breakdown of sales. We need a government and banking system that has the vision to capitalize on this and produce export growth across a rejuvenated manufacturing industry.

  22. @34
    The last thing anyone needs is the Government or a bank anywhere near this company, what rejuvenation? Do we make the presses, the robots and every other piece of machinery that make JLR products?

    So the car industry is doing well, have a look at Germany to see how its done. Car factories awash with German made industrial machinery.

  23. @Francis Brett:

    On the contrary, some of the equipment used in the manufacture of some of these products is still designed and made in this country. Take the marking equipment used for stamping Vehicle Identification Numbers into bodyshells and on transmission casings, for instance. Until my father retired six years ago, his company used to design and build most of the marking machines used in various Jaguar, Land Rover and MG Rover Group vehicles. Similar contracts were also completed for Aston Martin, Vauxhall Motors and Ford of Southampton.

  24. @35 & @36
    I have a friend that has a company which supply’s conveyors to JLR, true we are not on a par with Germany but we do & can supply machinery. The difference is the Germans take pride in using their own German products.

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