Jaguar Land Rover aiming to double sales

Jaguar Land Rover has revealed plans to double global sales by the end of the decade to 750,000 a year, and a target of 1 million sales per annum long term.

Jaguar Land Rover plan to double sales

We’ve got so used to reporting ever increasing sales for Jaguar and Land Rover that it comes as no big surprise that JLR are planning to double car sales by 2020.

A few years ago such a figure would have been risible, but since Tata took the helm from Ford in 2008 the focus at JLR on creating a world beating brand and product has been unshakable.

Tata got off to a good start with the Jaguar XF replacing the S-Type, and the new Jaguar XJ showing just how good a big luxury car can be to drive. But it’s been the clever development of the XF (and XJ) that’s driven sales as much as the Ford-developed XF. New engines, subtle updates and (finally) an XF Sportbrake Estate have made the XF perhaps the pick in its sector.

Now we have the new Jaguar F-Type – the first proper sports car from Jaguar in two generations – to put a halo on the brand and, we expect, more derivatives of existing models to drive sales, like an XF Coupe and XJ Coupe and more niche performance models.

But the real sea change for Jaguar sales will come when Jaguar launches a new, smaller Jaguar, probably in 2015. If they get that right, then that alone could drive Jaguar a long way towards JLR’s 1 million target.

But at the moment it’s Land Rover driving sales at JLR, and with an all new range almost in place with the 2013 Range Rover and 2014 Range Rover Sport arriving (we’ve still got the Discovery 5 and new Freelander to come – plus derivatives and a new Defender)) sales are strong, especially from the stylish and (slightly) more affordable Range Rover Evoque.

Take all that in to account, and JLR’s aim of doubling current sales (around 375k a year) to 750k a year by the end of the decade, and on towards a million sales, seems not only achievable – especially with markets like China and India likely to contribute significantly to that number – but even conservative.