Robust Jaguar Land Rover sales in June quarter power up Tata Motors

Wholesale, retail volumes up 30% and 29%, respectively

British luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mumbai-headquartered automobile giant Tata Motors, posted a 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in wholesale volumes and 29 per cent growth in retail sales in the June quarter of 2023-24 (Q1FY24) on improved supply of semiconductors.

JLR’s wholesale volumes, excluding those from its China joint venture, stood at 93,253 units in Q1, while its retail sales surged to 101,994 units, the company said on Friday. JLR may post free cash flow of about $510 million (about Rs 4,200 crore) for the first quarter, it said.

JLR accounts for nearly 60 per cent of Tata Motors’ revenue from operations.

 

Following the robust JLR sales numbers, shares of Tata Motors hit an all-time high of Rs 624.65 on the BSE before settling at Rs 618.45, up 2.9 per cent. The market capitalisation of Tata Motors excluding differential voting rights (DVR) shares crossed the Rs 2 trillion mark for the first time and stood at Rs 2.05 trillion. Including DVR shares, the company’s market cap was Rs 2.22 trillion as of Friday.
 

Demand for JLR’s Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, and Defender was high in the first quarter, representing about 76 per cent of the order book. “Retail sales of our three most profitable models were up significantly compared to the same quarter a year ago, with Range Rover up 199 per cent, Range Rover Sport up 42 per cent, and Defender up 90 per cent,” the company said.

JLR’s order book reduced from 200,000 units as of end-March to 185,000 at end-June in line with expectations, as “chip and other supply constraints” continued to improve, the company said. 

JLR’s wholesale volumes as well as retail volumes were down about 1 per cent compared to the March quarter. “Compared to the prior year, retail volumes were higher in the overseas (up 83 per cent), North America (up 42 per cent), China (up 40 per cent), and UK (up 6 per cent) regions while flat in Europe,” it said.

JLR will report its full financial results for the first quarter later in July. Tata Motors’ Q1 results are due on July 25.

Tata Motors group’s global wholesales in Q1FY24, including JLR, were at 322,159 units, up 5 per cent YoY. The JLR numbers do not include volumes of Chery Jaguar Land Rover -- a JV between JLR and Chery Automobiles. In a notification to the exchanges, the company said global wholesales of all Tata Motors’ commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in Q1FY24 were at 88,456 units, lower by 15 per cent. Global wholesales of Tata Motors passenger vehicles were at 140,450 units, higher by 8 per cent as compared to Q1FY23. In the EV segment, the company doubled its sales in the June quarter to 19,346.