Luxury vehicles give Jaguar Land Rover £29bn revenues

JAGUAR Land Rover (JLR) has achieved its highest ever yearly sales and its biggest profit in nearly a decade, as the luxury carmaker shrugs off any signs that budget squeezed consumers have been reining in spending.

The company said it made £29bn in revenues over the year to the end of March, more than a quarter higher than the previous year.

This was driven by record sales of its Range Rover vehicles, where its more expensive models start at around £100,000.

Around 133,000 vehicles had been ordered at the end of the financial year, three-quarters of which were for Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Defender models.

The group’s pre-tax profit hit £2.2bn, the highest amount since 2015, it said.

Earnings were boosted by higher sales volumes as well as a reduction in material costs for the business, amid a wider easing of inflation across the UK.

Its new electric Range Rover model has generated strong interest, with about 28,700 signing up to the waiting list since it opened in December.

The new models are being made at the firm’s factory in Solihull in the West Midlands.

The manufacturer said that about 950 electrification jobs were created in the latest year and Tata, the Indian parent company of JLR, has confirmed it was building a £4bn battery factory in Somerset.