Land Rover sets another global sales record

Land Rover has set a new global sales record in the first half of this year, helped by strong sales abroad.

At the end of June, sales were 108,874, up by over 8% on last year and the best half year performance in the company’s near 60 year long history. This comes after two successive full year sales records in 2005 and 2006.

The growth has been driven by strong demand for Land Rover’s award winning and environmentally improved line up of vehicles, in particular the all new Freelander 2 and TDV8 Range Rover.

The compact Freelander 2 is Land Rover’s most economical car to date and the new diesel V8 Range Rover delivers a 32% fuel benefit compared with the petrol version.

Land Rover continued to make progress in emerging markets like Russia (up by 82%) and China (up 63%) but also grew in the established European markets with June being the best sales month in the region in the company’s history.

Land Rover’s Managing Director, Phil Popham, said, “The markets where we plan to grow over the next few years are massively exceeding expectations. This year we shall sell around 40,000 cars in countries where we didn't even have a presence five years ago.

“We’re also gaining ground in established markets with great new products and fantastic new engines like the diesel V8 which delivers the performance our customers want and the environmental improvement they expect from Land Rover.”

In the USA, Land Rover’s largest market last year, sales for June were up by 8% thanks to the roll out of LR2 (Freelander 2) which has firmly established Land Rover in the compact sector.

Mr Popham added, “Land Rover is firmly in the black and is on target for a third successive record sales year.”