Jaguar Land Rover continued to demonstrate its value to its Indian owner, Tata Motors in June, as surging sales of the luxury brand offset a weaker performance elsewhere in the group.
The Indian company, which bought Jaguar Land Rover for $2.5bn from Ford in 2008, sold 94,055 vehicles last month, up 6 per cent on May, bringing the total for the year to 276,524, up 7 per cent on the same period a year earlier.
The increase was powered by Jaguar Land Rover, where sales jumped 39 per cent in June to 28,215 units, with a 5 per cent drop in Jaguar sales offset by a 49 per cent rise in Land Rover deliveries.
Jaguar Land Rover builds the bulk of its vehicles at three factories in Britain.
However, it told the Financial Times this week that it was in talks with the Brazilian authorities to start assembling cars there as it seeks to exploit growing emerging market demand for its products.
In May the company said that it would increase investment by a third to about £2bn in 2013, after the announcement of a joint venture with the Chinese company, Chery Automobile.
Stripping out the contribution from its luxury marques, overall sales at Tata Motors, were down almost 4 per cent, as the demand for passenger vehicles in its home Indian market continued to fall.
Shares in the company, which is India’s largest vehicle manufacturer, closed down 2.84 per cent at Rs229.25 in Mumbai.