Jaguar Land Rover on Friday reported a 15.5% year-on-year decline to 28,887 units in its global retail volumes for August 2020.
According to the company, YoY drop in its retail sales across its biggest markets including North America, China and Europe. Its retails, however, grew at home in the UK on the back of the recovering market and the launch of its all-new Defender sports utility vehicle (SUV).
It sold 8,187 units in China (down 7% YoY), 8,180 units in North America, down 17% YoY, and 5,186 units in Europe, where it recorded a drop of 25% YoY in retail sales.
Meanwhile, it sold 3,098 units in the UK thereby posting a YoY growth of 14% in August.
August retails are also sequentially lower than June and July global sales, which were at 35,334 units (down 25% YoY) and 36,421 units (down 4% YoY) respectively.
“Although down YoY 4.0% (July) and 15.5% (August) respectively, both months represent further recovery from Q1 FY21 when sales were down 42.4% with June down 24.9%,” the company said.
JLR’s total global retail sales for the June quarter stood at 74,067 units, which saw a dip of more than 42% YoY on covid-19 led disruptions.
On August 25, at Tata Motors’ annual general meeting, the senior management had said that 98% of all JLR retailers globally are operational.
The luxury carmaker is betting heavily on its newly launched Defender SUV, which now has an order bank of more than 30,000 units. JLR’s manufacturing unit in Slovakia, where the Defender is produced, has seen production ramp up to two shifts to meet the demand as Europe and other key markets recover.
The company also plans to launch 9 new models to drive sales this fiscal. New model pipeline includes 6 mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEV) and 3 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV).
