Jaguar Land Rover has posted a loss of £524 million for the first quarter of the 2023 financial year, as it continues to suffer the impacts of the global semiconductor shortage and Covid lockdowns.
The Tata-owned British company sold 78,825 new cars from April to June – a drop of around 46,000 year on year, representing a 37% drop.
Excluding sales in China, JLR's wholesale volumes stood at 71,815, which was 6% down on the previous quarter.
Its order book, meanwhile, stood at almost 200,000 cars – around 32,000 more than at the end of March.
It said that orders for the new Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Land Rover Defender form 60% of that total.
In addition, JLR's revenues dropped 7.6% year on year to £4.4 billion, reporting a total loss in the quarter of £524m.
JLR suggested semiconductor shortages and the impacts of coronavirus lockdowns in China were continuing to hamper growth and performance, as it was unable to ramp up production some of its most popular models.
The company said: “Despite strong demand and a record order book, sales continued to be constrained by the global chip shortage, compounded by the slower than expected production ramp up of the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport and the impact of Covid lockdowns in China, leading to a loss for the quarter."
JLR claimed that its financial performance will improve over the coming months as production of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport begins to ramp up, supported by the easing of semiconductor bottlenecks.
“Although headwinds from the global semiconductor supply and Covid lockdowns in China have impacted our business performance this quarter, I'm pleased to confirm that we have a completely reinforced organisation set up to respond to the semiconductor crisis,” said JLR CEO Thierry Bolloré.
“This is now starting to recover production growth to achieve greater volumes and will allow us to take advantage of our record order book in the second quarter.”
Add your comment