Jaguar Land Rover sales gain 30%; China passes UK as top market
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DETROIT (Bloomberg) -- Jaguar Land Rover's global sales rose 30 percent last year, with China surpassing the UK to become the largest market for the unit of Tata Motors Ltd.
Jaguar Land Rover sales totaled 357,773 vehicles in 2012, the company said in an e-mailed statement. It plans to add 800 jobs to support development of new models, according to the statement.
"We will see sales increase quite significantly across all our regions in 2013," Phil Popham, Jaguar Land Rover's director of group sales operations, said at a press briefing ahead of the Detroit auto show.
Tata Motors acquired the two brands from Ford Motor Co. in 2008 for $2.5 billion. Under Tata, Jaguar and Land Rover have targeted emerging markets such as China and Russia for growth.
The brands sold 71,940 vehicles in China last year, up 71 percent, surpassing sales in the UK at 68,333 and the United States at 55,675.
The brands have developed new models such as the Range Rover Evoque SUV in 2011 and the upcoming convertible Jaguar F-Type.
The 800 additional jobs for new-model development will be at Jaguar Land Rover's plant in Solihull, England, according to the statement.
Land Rover global deliveries rose 36 percent last year, while Jaguar sales increased 6 percent, according to the statement. In the United States, Land Rover sales climbed 15 percent to 43,664 while Jaguar fell 2.2 percent to 12,011, the company said Jan. 3.
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