Jaguar land Rover crashes to a quarterly loss

Fall comes on back of sales of F-Pace 4x4s, which fell 26 per cent in the quarter, and Discovery Sports, which declined 14 per cent

Jaguar Land Rover 4x4s. The car maker saw demand fall for some of its models. Bloomberg

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) posted a quarterly loss on amid a decline in deliveries of its 4x4 F-Pace and Discovery Sport from a year earlier.

The luxury unit of Tata Motors reported a loss of £210 million (Dh1.01 billion) in the three months ended June 30, the car maker said on Tuesday. The parent also posted a loss of 19 billion rupees (Dh1.01bn).

“With regards to JLR, we faced multiple challenges including temporary issues like China duty impacts as well as the market issues like diesel concerns in UK And Europe,” Tata Motors chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said.

Sales of F-Pace 4x4 fell 26 per cent in the quarter, while Discovery Sport declined 14 per cent. Deliveries in Europe, one of its biggest markets, slipped 7.3 per cent in the period.

The results come after JLR last week said it delivered 10 of its £62,925 battery models to Munich’s biggest taxi operator. Daimler’s upscale Mercedes brand accounts for about 60 per cent of German taxis, with drivers mostly choosing the $46,200 E-Class saloon. The world’s biggest luxury car maker doesn’t start delivering its electric EQ C crossover until next year.

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“We want to invite people in Munich to drive electric, but also drive Jaguar,” JLR’s chief executive Ralf Speth said at the time. “One of the reasons we wanted to be here was the mixed traffic - you’ve got the city traffic, on the other you’ve got the autobahn to the airport.”

The vehicles, with a driving range of about 330km, are part of a push by the city of Munich, also BMW’s hometown, to reduce pollution. Rides will be made cheaper with a 20 euro-cent per kilometre subsidy from the municipality. Jaguar started sales of its electric model earlier this year, the first of a growing lineup of a new generation of electric cars with more attractive designs and driving ranges as tightening emissions regulation forces car makers to switch to battery models.

Munich is among German cities with the highest levels of pollution from diesel vehicles, exceeding limits of harmful nitrogen oxides that has triggered potential driving bans for older cars.

Mr Speth said the company was open to expanding into other city taxi fleets.