Strong Jaguar Land Rover sales drive tripling of profit at India’s Tata Motors

Reuters: Strong sales by luxury vehicle maker Jaguar Land Rover and higher demand for trucks in its home market powered a tripling of net profit at India’s Tata Motors Ltd. in the latest quarter.

Strong demand for the Jaguar XE compact saloon, nicknamed the ‘baby Jag’, and the Discovery Sport SUV pushed sales at the British luxury unit up 28% to 158,813 vehicles in the fiscal fourth quarter ended 31 March, Tata Motors, India’s top automaker by revenue, said on Monday.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) sales in China, once its biggest and fastest-growing market, recovered during the quarter, rising 19% after dropping 10% in the previous quarter. But that trailed 55% growth in Europe where demand for its vehicles soared. “China is really coming back and that will also be the focus,” JLR Chief Executive Ralf Speth told a news conference. “I am cautiously optimistic that we can continue around the world with very nice sales and distribution,” he said.

LR overtook Nissan last year to become Britain’s biggest automaker.

Consolidated net profit at Tata Motors for the three months ended 31 March rose to 51.7 billion rupees ($ 771 million) compared with 17.17 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter.