JLR Preparing for Full-On Attack in the US Next Year

In 2014, global sales of the Jaguar Land Rover group rose by

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by Andreas Tsaousis

January 18, 2015 at 13:03

In 2014, global sales of the Jaguar Land Rover group rose by 9 percent globally. Unfortunately, while all markets were up by as high as 28 percent (in China), US sales were flat.

JLR North American President Joe Eberhardt told WardsAuto at the Detroit auto show that one of the problems was a very short inventory, with just nine to 12 days’ supply of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport.

“We’re still short on inventory from a North American perspective”, said Eberhardt. “It’s a good problem to have. I’d rather have too few units in stock than too many.” He also decided against expanding the US dealer network, making profitability the first priority and stating that “we will not sacrifice profitability for the sake of volume”.

Still, it would be nice to have more vehicles to sell if there are buyers around. To cope with the supply problem, JLR is increasing capacity at its Solihull plant in the UK and boosting production of the Evoque in China.

The company views this year as one of preparation for its 2016 full-on attack with the new Jaguar XE compact saloon and F-Pace crossover that will go on sale next year and the newly introduced diesel engines in the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport luxury SUVs.