Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has reported total retail sales of 48,281 vehicles in May 2018, up 6.1 percent year on year. The company claims that the sales growth was primarily driven by new models including the Range Rover Velar, the Jaguar E-Pace and the new Land Rover Discovery.

Sales in overseas markets were reported to be up by 24 percent. JLR posted significant growth in the UK (20.9%) and in North America (16.7%). However, compared to May 2017, sales in Europe fell by 8.7 percent and by 8.1 percent in China.

Felix Brautigam, Jaguar Land Rover chief commercial officer, said, “Strong demand for Land Rover vehicles drove our performance in May particularly in the US and UK. The new, award-winning Range Rover Velar was an important contributor. Also, our latest Range Rover and Range Rover sport models, including plug-in hybrid options, have been performing particularly well in key markets.”

Felix added, “China is a key market for us and we welcome the reduction in import tariffs announced in May. Although there has been an initial drop in sales as customers weigh up what it means for them, all indications are that this will be temporary and the move mid-term will further strengthen demand.”

Jaguar retail sales were 14,507 vehicles in May, up 6.6 percent on May last year. The company credits this to the introduction of the E-Pace that partially offset the low sales figures of F-Pace and other models.

Land Rover retailed 33,774 vehicles in May, up 6 percent year on year. The company declared that this was led by the introduction of Velar and the new Discovery recently, which partially offset the lower sales of the Evoque and Discovery Sport. The sales of the refreshed Range Rover and Range Rover Sport (including PHEVs) are said to be still ramping up.

Jaguar Land Rover total retail sales for the calendar year to date were 266,170 units, up 0.3 percent on a year-on-year basis.

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