JustBritish

Land Rover enjoyed a massive UK sales surge last month – with more than 3,000 vehicles sold.

The Solihull-based 4×4 manufacturer sold 3,044 vehicles in October compared to 1,864 in October last year, an increase of more than 63 per cent, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed.

The sales rise followed a bumper September for Land Rover, with the company selling 6,230 vehicles compared to 5,788 in the corresponding month in 2010. October’s sales jump followed the success of the Range Rover Evoque and a general increase in the purchase of SUVs amid predictions of another harsh winter.

Jaguar saw sales dip slightly last month, with the Big Cat selling 713 cars in October compared to 806 in October last year. SMMT figures also showed that Longbridge-based MG Motor UK sold 15 sports cars last month against 16 in October 2010.

After years of plant closures in the region’s car industry (think MG Rover, Peugeot, Jaguar at Brown’s Lane), news this week that JLR will build its new engine plant near Wolverhampton will provide a major boost. This according to the Birmingham News.

The new plant will be based at the i54 business park, in the Black Country’s new enterprise zone. As such, the new plant could well qualify for enhanced capital allowances which could see JLR getting tax breaks for big investments in plant and equipment (hats off by the way to AWM for their work in readying the site, local authorities and the Black Country LEP for pulling off Enterprise Zone status, and to the government for backing the investment).

But as well as tax breaks, the location makes a lot of sense in other ways. Just off the M54 motorway, the site is close to JLR’s assembly plants in the Midlands and on Merseyside, so means that engines can be transported quickly to JLR’s Castle Bromwich, Solihull and Halewood plants. And the region still offers a rich engineering skills base on which the new plant can draw.

The plant is likely to involve a £355 million investment, could employ as many as 750 workers, and – depending on how many components JLR sources locally – could bring more jobs and wider benefits to the region’s components industry.

JLR currently buys engines from its previous owner Ford, but with JLR production being ramped up, it has struggled to source enough engines from Ford’s UK engine plants at Dagenham and Bridgend. JLR wants more control over the supply of its engines, and has the in-house engineering skills needed to develop new engines.

Read the complete article at the Birmingham News.

While Mercedes calls its cars “uber” internally when they want to give them steroids, the British marketing teams at Land Rover are currently considering a “Grande Evoque”, which will fill the gap in the lineup between the compact Range Rover Evoque and the Range Rover Sport.

Once again, this is a car that’s being analyzed from a marketing point of view first and then from an automotive perspective, but we’ll let it slide because we like the new design direction the British firm has.

According to Autocar, inside sources say that a final conclusion on whether to give the go-ahead or not is close to being reached. Land Rover wants to bridge the gap in price between the range-topping Evoque and the entry-level Sport.

The Grande Evoque could be a five-door machine that takes the recently introduced shape and blows it up a bit to provide more room for families. “What’s wrong with the Freelander 4 as a family car?” you may ask. Not much, but a coupe-like body shape will substantially increase market appeal, plus the Freelander has as much chance of being looked at as being sporty as a tractor tire. The Grande Evoque will benefit from an aggressive sporting appearance and still offer considerable legroom in the back.

The powertrains will be borrowed from the Evoque, as will the front-wheel drive option, so expect to see 2.2-liter diesel and 2.0-liter petrol engines under the bonnet. Autocar says the LR-MS platform could be stretched some 300 millimeters (about 12 inches), half of which will go toward legroom and the other will be used for a bigger boot.

The company, which only two years ago attempted to seek Government support as global car sales collapsed, said pre-tax profits rose from £15m last year to £1.1bn in the year to March 31. The increase has been driven by a huge rise in Jaguar and Land Rover sales in China and emerging markets, where the middle classes see the British cars as a status symbol.

JLR sales rose 51pc in the year from £6.6bn to £9.9bn, which was also aided by new models such as the Jaguar XJ and favourable foreign exchange rates. “Jaguar Land Rover is now a strong, profitable and innovative competitor in the premium car industry,” said Carl-Peter Forster, chief executive of JLR’s parent company Tata Motors.

Indian company Tata bought JLR from Ford in 2008, but initially suffered heavy losses as the recessions struck.

Read the more of the complete story at The Telegraph.

Land Rovers began rolling off the assembly line Friday at the British brand’s first plant in India since it was bought by the Indian car giant Tata Motors. Parts are still being manufactured at Jaguar Land Rover’s plant in Liverpool, England, but Land Rover Freelander 2 SUV’s are now being built in the western Indian city of Pune.

India offers Jaguar great opportunities to build cars for less, Carl-Peter Forster, chief executive officer and managing director of Tata Motors, told reporters. “Clearly, India can be a very attractive sourcing base, an opportunity to source increasingly high quality but lower cost components not only for India operations but for overseas operations,” he said. Forster has already indicated that Indian engineering will also play a role in the design of Jaguar Land Rover engines.

Tata bought Jaguar from Ford in 2008 for $2.3 billion. As part of that transaction, Tata Motors entered into a series of contracts to buy vehicle components and technology from Ford. Forster said those contracts begin to expire around 2015. He intends to renew them, but would like to engineer new engines in-house, combining the expertise of the group’s engineers in India and the U.K.

Auto expert Shapur Kotwal said that India’s premium car market was expected to grow strongly in the next five years with more people able to afford expensive cars.

“It’s an aspirational thing that we had grown up in the society where we had got only Marutis and before that only Fiats and Ambassadors,” said Kotwal, naming some relatively cheap Japanese, Italian and Indian cars. “So it’s natural that we want to have the best; we have been starved of good cars.”

There was a lot of eye rolling and worried looks when Ford sold Jaguar to India’s Tata. But based on the latest December figures, maybe there wasn’t reason to worry.

Jaguar sold 1,246 cars in December in the U.S., a 24% increase from last year. Land Rover sold 3,595 of its rugged SUVs, a 37% boost from a year ago. For the full year, combined sales of both brands dipped 14%, not bad considering how the overall auto industry saw sales plunge even more. Needless to say, execs are happy:

“Three consecutive months of Jaguar and Land Rover growth is a great way to end 2009, and a sign of better times to come,” said Jaguar-Land Rover North America President Gary Temple. “We start 2010 with sales momentum, strong product lineups for both brands, and the launch of the 2011 Jaguar XJ on its way. It is going to be a very exciting year.”

Jaguar and Land Rover are owned by a company now best known as the maker of the world’s cheapest car, the $2,500 Nano that plies the rough roads of India. Many were unsure what would happen to the storied British brands in the hands of a third-world automaker. But Tata looks like it’s succeeding — so far.