Tata Motors’ JLR reports 3% jump in its Sept retail sales

Mumbai: Tata Motors Ltd rose the most in more than two years on expectations new model introductions by its luxury unit Jaguar Land Rover will spur sales.

In the passenger vehicles category, global sales stood at 63,334 units last month as against 45,186 units in September 2014, up 40 per cent.

The company’s sales of commercial vehicles in September declined by 3% to 33,768 units from 34,918 units a year ago.

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Commenting on the performance, Andy Goss, Jaguar Land Rover Group Sales Operations Director said:”The all-new Jaguar XE and the all-new Discovery Sport continued to impress this month, retailing more than 13,000 vehicles in total”.

Jaguar delivered a solid performance in the month, selling 10,394 vehicles, up 22%. The automaker, however, has clocked sales growth of 21% in Europe, 18% in North America and 15% in the U.K.so far this financial year. China sales of XE sports saloon started in September and in USA, it will begin from next calendar year.

China, Jaguar Land Rover’s biggest market, has been key driver of growth for luxury carmakers in recent years, but growth in Asia’s largest economy has slowed for the first time in a generation, clouding the outlook for auto demand.

New sales figures for September reveal that the Discovery Sport is proving popular with customers and is outselling, by 30%, the Freelander which it replaced, which was also built at the Knowsley vehicle plant.

JLR’s overseas market, which includes Russian Federation, Brazil and the Middle East and North Africa, were 12pc lower in the period, but the company said strong growth elsewhere help prop up its performance.

“Given the exceptional nature of this event, Jaguar Land Rover is still assessing the damages and it may be a few time before the company knows what insurance and other recoveries will be”, said a spokesman.

Jaguar Land Rover said on Wednesday its second-quarter results would be affected by a blast at the Chinese port of Tianjin in August which destroyed or damaged thousands of its cars at the site.

There is likely to be a one-time exceptional charge in Q2 FY16 before any potential recoveries in subsequent quarters, it added.