Jaguar Land Rover aims to sell 100,000 units in China this year !

Jaguar Land Rover, a unit of India's biggest truck and bus maker Tata Motors , aims to sell 100,000 cars in China this year, its Chief Executive Ralf Speth told reporters on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Tata Motors posted a 23 percent fall in quarterly profit as higher sales of its luxury Jaguar Land Rover vehicles failed to offset sagging sales at home.

Tata Motors, part of the $100 billion Tata group, said consolidated net profit for the quarter ended in June was 17.26 billion rupees ($281 million), compared with 22.45 billion rupees a year ago.

TMW

Can they do it, well, yes I think that they will be able to achieve that, in 2012 Jaguar sold a total of 7451 for the year in the China region, so far this year for the first six months of the year they have already beaten that figure by over 500 sales, so a figure of between 18,000 to 20,000 cars is achievable with the latest engines and upgrades and the new F-Type will add significant numbers to this.

On the other hand Land Rover sold a total of 65,896 for the full year in 2012, and thus far 34,222 have been sold, and again they have the new Range Rover, the new Sport, as well as the Discovery 4, Freelander 2 and the super successful Evoque or Aurora as it is known in China, so sales for the SUV brand will no doubt be in the 80,000 range, so yes, it is totally feasible for Jaguar Land Rover to achieve the landmark 100,000 sales, and with the building of the factory to build cars for local sale the 100k mark is definitely achievable, and I would not be surprised to see this figure beaten, significantly!

2012 China Region full calendar year retails:

Jaguar: 7451

Land Rover: 65,896

2013 China Region calendar year to June retails:

Jaguar: 7932

Land Rover: 34222

Kia's Zilina factory at full capacity for first time.

• Zilina manufactured 158,900 vehicles from January to June 2013
• Output represents six per cent growth for the first half of 2013
• Kia Slovakia is currently at full production capacity for the first time in its history

Kia Motors Slovakia recorded a six per cent year-on-year increase in output, producing 158,900 cars at its
Zilina, Slovakia facility during the first half of 2013. The company started production of the all-new Kia pro_cee’d three-door model in February, followed by the higher performance Kia pro_cee’d GT and five-door Kia cee’d GT models at the end of May.  The plant is now operating at full production capacity for the first time ever.

Kia Motors Slovakia also produced more than 253,200 petrol and diesel engines for the first six months of 2013, a 6.7 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Eek-hee Lee, President and CEO of Kia Motors Slovakia said; "Despite the less than favourable situation in some markets, European customers still appreciate Kia’s offer that combines top quality, attractive design and great value for money.

“That has enabled us to achieve a six per cent year-on-year production increase, with almost 160,000 cars manufactured in the first half of the year.  We believe that the new models launched this year will support us remaining at full production capacity,” he added.

Kia’s Zilina facility produces the second-generation Kia cee’d, the Kia Sportage sport utility vehicle, and the practical B-segment MPV, the Kia Venga.  Kia Sportage accounted for almost 48 per cent of the overall production output in the first half of 2013.  The remainder 42 per cent is made up of the Kia cee'd models, while the Kia Venga represents 10 per cent of production.  Most of these cars were exported to Russia (24 per cent), the UK (14 per cent), Germany (nine per cent), France (five per cent) and Italy (five per cent).  Almost one per cent of output is sold in Slovakia.

In the first half of 2013, Kia also manufactured 133,100 petrol engines (53 per cent of total engine output), the most popular variant being the 1.6-litre GDi petrol engine, and over 120,100 diesel engines (47 per cent).  Of total engine production output, 47 per cent was supplied to sister company, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech, in the Czech Republic.