Sales in China, Europe fall as JLR struggles with chip shortage

Jaguar Land Rover said its retail sales declined by 36 percent to 79,008 in Q4FY22 in comparison to the corresponding period of last fiscal due to the ongoing semiconductor shortages. However, the situation seems has shown some signs of abating with the fall being just about one percent when compared to Q3FY22.

Retails were higher compared to the previous quarter in the UK (+34 percent), North America (+5 percent) and Overseas (+10 percent) but were lower in China (-18 percent) and Europe (-17 percent.). 

Lennard Hoornik, CFO, JLR said, “The successful New Range Rover launch, as well as the momentum gained from the Defender, has resulted in a steadily increasing order bank, now at a record 168,000 units".

Despite the semiconductor shortage, JLR says it expects strong demand for its products with global retail orders again setting new records in the quarter. As of 31 March 2022, the total order book has grown to over 168,000 units, up around 14,000 orders from 31 December 2021. Demand for the New Range Rover and New Defender are particularly strong with over 45,500 and 40,000 orders respectively.

JLR said the conflict in Ukraine has not materially impacted its wholesale volumes in the quarter though the impact on production has also been limited due to active management of the parts supply chain, including developing alternatives for the relatively small number of parts sourced from the affected countries. However, it is difficult to predict how supply and inflationary pressures will impact the coming quarters," the management added.