Tata Motors-owned JLR India sales up 102% YoY in Q1

Days after the change in leadership, Jaguar Land Rover India has clocked a 102% year-on-year (YoY) increase in retail sales to 1,048 units owing to sustained demand across Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Defender models, according to a statement by the parent company Tata Motors. The development comes two days after Tata Group appointed Adrian Mardell as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc for a three-year term. The company has also permanently appointed Richard Molyneux as the chief financial officer (CFO) of the company.

The three SUV models cumulatively contributed 78% of the current order book. The order book of the three SUVs grew by 88% year-on-year in the April to June period this year as against 209% in the same period last year. The company’s pre-owned business also grew 137% year-on-year in the period under review.

"Backed by the growing demand among our discerning clients, our order book remains strong and growing, and we are excited and confident of our India story ahead," says Rajan Amba, MD, JLR India. According to the company, Jaguar Land Rover has a strong order book of 2,00,000 units. With the automobile industry doubling down on electric vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover will invest 15 billion pounds over the next five years as it plans to expand its electric vehicle footprint. The UK-based company's Halewood plant in the U.K. will become an all-electric production facility. Its next-generation medium-size SUV electrified modular architecture (EMA) will now be pure-electric, says Jaguar Land Rover.

Jaguar Land Rover aims to clock 28 billion pounds in revenue in FY2024 and 30 billion pounds in revenue by FY26. As part of the company's 'Reimagine' strategy, Jaguar Land Rover will invest three billion pound per annum in order to expand its portfolio. The company has a target of free cash flow of 2 billion pound in FY24 and plans to reduce the net cash debt to zero by FY25.

In order to achieve its ‘electrification’ dream, the Tata Group plans an investment of over 4 billion pounds or ₹42,500 crore to set up a 40-gigawatt battery cell gigafactory in the United Kingdom. Touted to be one of the largest-ever investments in the UK automotive sector, the gigafactory will create up to 4,000 new direct jobs. JLR and Tata Motors will be anchor customers of Europe's largest electric car battery factory and supplies will commence from 2026.

 Tata Group has also announced an investment of ₹13,000 crore to set up a lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility in Gujarat with a production capacity of ₹13,000 crore.