Jaguar Land Rover reported profit before tax of £265 million ($326 million) for the quarter ending in December, compared to an £9 million shortfall in 2021, Indian parent Tata Motors Ltd. reported.
The automaker attributes the gain to nearly double the sales of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models and positive currency effects.
“JLR has returned to profit as chip shortages eased in the quarter and production and wholesales increased,” Adrian Mardell, JLR’s interim CEO, said in a press release. Mardell took over as CEO when Thierry Bollore, who led the company for less than two years, announced his departure in November.
The manufacturer noted that semiconductor shortages crippled production across the auto industry for much of 2022. JLR reported it might miss its target of becoming net-debt free by 2024 because of continued supply shortages, which come amid record vehicle orders of 215,000.
JLR also announced that its Solihull plant in the UK will manufacture fully electric Jaguar models alongside Range Rover models by 2025.
JLR reported it expects to achieve positive Ebit margin and free cash flow in the fiscal fourth quarter with wholesales of 80,000 units or more. The cost-cutting program is expected to deliver over £1 billion in improvements in 2023 to help soften inflation.
Tata Motors CFO P.B. Balaji reported he is “cautiously optimistic,” noting there is still a shortage of semiconductor supplies at JLR.
JLR’s wholesales jumped 15% in the third quarter of its fiscal year, to 79,591 vehicles. Wholesale volumes in China were hit by Covid restrictions over the year, with sales falling 13% from the previous quarter. The situation is expected to improve now that China has lifted these restrictions.
Parent-company Tata reported a net income of 29.6 billion rupees ($363 million) in the third quarter, compared to a 15.2 billion rupee loss in 2021.
Tata Motors plans to invest $2.2 billion in electric vehicles over five years with the company’s EV business well-funded, Balaji reported.
