FROM AUTOCAR
JLR has never been mass-market, but the company’s sales figures for the previous quarter laid bare just how focused it is right now on selling the big stuff. Its runaway best-seller for the quarter was the Defender at 23,816, while the Range Rover was second with wholesales (ie sales to dealers) of 16,682. JLR pointed out that it had booked more than 5000 orders of the SV version, with average pricing above £180,000. Third was the Range Rover Sport, with 11,318.
(Above: Jaguar advertising with feeling by PR guru John Crawford – how sad it is for Jaguar in 2023)
Over at Jaguar, the F-Pace SUV remained its best-seller over the thee-month period, at 6230, while I-Pace sales have more than halved from the same period a year ago, at 1111. Sales of the Jaguar E-Pace have almost ground to a halt, with just 725 shifted in the quarter.
Sales of the XE and XF saloons were buoyed by JLR’s Chinese joint venture (JV), which builds them for sales within the country along with Evoque and Discovery Sport.
JLR’s outsized order book of 215,000 vehicles is 74% Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Defender, the company said. In fact, orders for the Range Rover are now closed until the 2024 model year, such is the company’s production backlog.
There’s little sign that JLR is going to start prioritising production of other models any time soon.
“The Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and the MLA architecture [they’re based on] are fundamental to our business model and our business success,” acting CEO Adrian Mardell said on the company’s earnings call on Wednesday.
Sadly, we at Jaguar Magazine say it appears to be ‘goodnight Jaguar’.
Criminal stuff.
www.jaguarmagazine.com
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