From today's Financial Times

Jaguar Land Rover profits halved as a slide in the demand for diesel cars and higher spending costs ate into the margins of Britain’s biggest carmaker.

Pre-tax profit for the quarter to the end of March fell to £364m, compared with £676m in the same quarter last year, as sales in its key UK and European markets slumped.

For the year to the end of March, pre-tax profit fell by £100m to £1.5bn, while car sales rose just 1.7 per cent to 614,000, compared with 16 per cent growth in the previous year.

Its profit margin for the year fell from 5.9 per cent to 3.8 per cent, largely because of lower sales, but also higher spending on new technologies as the group tried to keep pace with larger rivals in developing electric and self-driving systems.

Ralf Speth, chief executive, said: “Despite external headwinds, these results reflect the underlying strengths of Jaguar Land Rover.

“Sales have reached a new high. Strong demand in our key overseas markets has offset the challenging conditions in the UK and other parts of Europe.”

The company, which is heavily reliant on diesel sales in UK and Europe, has been hit by the political backlash against the fuel that has seen some cities consider banning older diesel engines and governments increase taxes.

In the UK, diesel sales currently account for less than a third of new car sales, compared with more than half four years ago, and new taxes that came into force last month are expected to accelerate the decline.

JLR blamed the diesel collapse for a decision last month to cut 1,000 jobs at its British factories.

Although JLR is the first mainstream premium brand to develop a long-range fully-electric sport utility vehicle with the Jaguar I-Pace, the company lags behind its German rivals in offering electric alternatives across a range of its products.

The company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, spent £4.2bn on technology and investment last year compared with £3.4bn a year earlier.

The spending also went on improving its UK facilities, and building a new plant in Slovakia to produce Land Rover models outside Britain in the future.

Annual revenues rose 6 per cent to £25.8bn, driven by a large rise in orders to China, its fastest growing region.

While demand in China rose by a fifth, and North American sales climbed 4.7 per cent, domestic sales fell 12.8 per cent while Europe dropped 5.3 per cent.

Its January to March profit fall was also affected by higher charges in its vehicle development programme. The company said its annual pre-tax profit was affected by a £437m credit from its pension scheme in the first quarter of the year. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
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My friend's son works on maintenance at JLR Solihull and has recently had his overtime cut significantly. Jules

This of course has a massive impact on so many businesses not just JLR, it's time the government stopped pussy footing around and go public and say that modern diesels are not the monstrous vehicles people have been led to believe they are. The whole uncertainty about diesels future is stopping potential buyers from taking the plunge and buying new.

Does this mean we will go back to trams and Eddie Stobart will use horses for pulling wagons?

(Mind you, some of Stobart drivers I see would be better driving a horse and cart!)

If China was not booming Land Rover would be in deep

The company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, spent £4.2bn on technology and investment last year compared with £3.4bn a year earlier.

It's not all bad news, they must believe that it is worth spending money on the future.

PS Can anyone name a member of the government which they believe has any real knowledge about cars or transport?? FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Persons with real knowledge of cars is getting less and less, unfortunately main dealers of most manufacturers also suffer from the same problem.  my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

IanMetro wrote:

The company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, spent £4.2bn on technology and investment last year compared with £3.4bn a year earlier.

It's not all bad news, they must believe that it is worth spending money on the future.

PS Can anyone name a member of the government which they believe has any real knowledge about cars or transport??

Li Xiaopeng in China and Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari in India.