Land Rover announce 43.1% increase in global sales

Land Rover has achieved record global sales in March 2010 selling over 24,000 vehicles – an increase of 43.1% versus the same period last year. The MENA region also achieved phenomenal success in Q1 2010 with an increase of 19.9% in sales compared to Q1 2009.

March 2010 is the sixth consecutive month of improvement for Land Rover globally signalling an increasingly stable marketplace. Phil Popham, managing director, Land Rover commented: “Land Rover has had an incredible start to 2010 and we are now over a third up on the same period last year. It is also extremely encouraging to see a continued growth in our emerging markets.”

“The sales increase is mainly owed to the phenomenal response received from customers and media to the award winning 2010 model year Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Discovery 4 / LR4 and Freelander 2 / LR2. It is the most efficient and technologically advanced line-up of vehicles Land Rover has ever had, ensuring a continued demand for our brand,” added Mr. Popham.

Land Rover has delivered an improvement in the majority of markets with a particularly strong performance in UAE and Qatar resulting in growths of 48% and 66.7% respectively. Land Rover’s flagship Range Rover enjoyed the highest growth in the region with sales up by 93%, followed by the Range Rover Sport which saw an increase of 39.1%. The most capable LR4/3 also witnessed an boost in sales by 23.4%.

Robin Colgan, Managing Director Jaguar Land Rover Middle East and North Africa said, “Land Rover as always had a strong presence in the Middle East and North Africa, and these figures show that despite it being a tough year for the automotive industry in general, Land Rover has achieved what we had set out to in the last year. I am particularly proud of the results for our flagship Range Rover – this has long since been our most popular nameplate in this region and the results show that it continues to retain its leadership in the luxury SUV segment. It is fantastic to see the brand going from strength to strength and we look forward to a strong remainder of 2010.”

China has seen its best quarter ever – up 192% on same period in 2009 and 168% month on month; whilst sales in Korea have risen by 149% and in Brazil sales are up by 101.4% month on month.

The UK remains the largest market for Land Rover where sales were up 67% on the same month last year, selling over 11,350 vehicles and beating all previous records. North America comes in second with March sales up approx 23% – 2,975 vehicles – and China are third largest, selling over 2000 vehicles.

Other European markets which saw a good sales performance in March were Switzerland up 139%, Turkey up 150%, Austria up 53.4%, Spain was up 67.2%, Germany up 59%, France up 27.8% and Netherlands up 38.6%.