Evoque gives TaMo a fabulous ride

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is giving Tata Motors one terrific ride indeed.

The mothership’s overall sales jumped 45% in December riding on shining star the Range Rover Evoque.

For the month, JLR’s global sales were 30,981 units out of which 26,255 units were contributed by the Range Rover range.

Meaning, 54% more Range Rover vehicles were sold over December 2010. And the range today tots up almost 84% in JLR’s sales.

Ashish Nigam and Kunal Jhaveri, analysts with Antique Stock Broking, believe around 7,000 Evoques were sold in December alone.

Nigam said about 60,000- 70,000 Evoques are expected to be sold in a year, but he expects the number to be beaten in 2012.
Demand from China remains astonishing — 18% of total volumes for December came from the Middle Kingdom.

“JLR’s China sales exceeded 42,000 units (+61% growth year on year in December) for the first time, surpassing its 2011 target for exports to China of 40,000 vehicles, outperforming the overall average in the China luxury auto sector,” said Aditya Makharia and Ritesh Gupta, analysts with Morgan Stanley, in a note on the company.

Tata Motors has, on the whole, done well in December. Global sales, including of JLR, were 114,920 units, a growth of 27% year on year.

Cumulative sales for the fiscal so far is 865,400, which is a rise of 12% over last fiscal.

Passenger vehicles were up 45% at 61,066 units.

“Trucks, which contribute up to 75-80% of the total domestic sales of Tata Motors, have been performing well and this is expected to drive growth further in India operations,” said Jigar Shah, head of research Kimeng Securities. But he has a word of caution.

“Europe accounts for 42% of the group’s total volumes and any discomforting trigger in Europe can lead to a slump in numbers,” he said. The brokerage has a ‘sell’ recommendation on Tata Motors.

But Nigam from Antique said the JLR story has gone beyond the geography and become more about the product, which would help it bridge the gap with its German peers.