Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has posted its first profit in two years after bumper sales of its newest Range Rover. The Indian-owned car maker, which has a head office in Coventry, said it had sold 5,000 of its new Range Rover SV luxury 4x4 since its launch in October. At an average selling price of £180,000, the model has netted £900 mn for the business and helped JLR record its first profit since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company made a post-tax profit of £261 mn in the third quarter of its financial year as supply of computer chips, vital for production of its advanced vehicles, improved after bottlenecks. Adrian Mardell, interim chief executive, said: “These improved results are testament to the hard work and dedication of our people across the business who have delivered a further increase in production of our New Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models.”
Along with other global automotive manufacturers JLR had blamed chip shortages for causing production issues over the past two years. Last year the company halved production at its Solihull factory from two shifts to one, affecting output of its Range Rover Velar and Jaguar F-Pace models. At the time, sources said JLR would concentrate production on top-end vehicles such as the Range Rover Sport. The company said it had forged “one on one” relationships with major chip manufacturers to help ease pressure on supplies of the vital items, which power computerised control of everything in its cars from spark plugs to air conditioning.
