Auto special: Product is king for Jaguar Land Rover British automaker brings new generation of vehicles to China

For Jaguar Land Rover, product is king in the Year of the Monkey. The British automaker is assembling a formidable product line-up of Jaguar and Land Rover models as it aims to build on an impressive six months of consecutive sales growth following a period of adjustment in China in the first half of 2015.

"In the wake of Jaguar Land Rover's best ever global sales figures in 2015, we are bringing a new generation of exceptional vehicles to China", said Mark Bishop, president of Integrated Marketing, Sales and Service at Jaguar Land Rover China/Chery Jaguar Land Rover. "Recent arrivals have been well received by the market while we expect forthcoming models to make a big impact in their respective segments. We are excited about 2016 and confident of our development in China."

2016 is set to be a breakthrough year in China for historic brand Jaguar. New versions of the Jaguar XJ and XF models recently went on sale, joining the award-winning Jaguar XE, a model already proving popular with Chinese customers.

The highly anticipated F-PACE will also come to China this year, along with Jaguar's first locally produced vehicle, set to go into production at the company's joint venture facility in Changshu, Jiangsu province.

For Land Rover, its locally produced all-terrain vehicles - the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport - are expected to continue to perform well in China's buoyant SUV market while a new Discovery model has appeared on the horizon.

"Our locally produced Land Rover vehicles now contribute to nearly half of our sales in China, an important step for us as we build for long-term sustainable growth in this market", said James Hu, deputy president of IMSS.

Having started 2016 on the right foot - January sales were up 5 percent year-on-year - the future is looking healthy for Jaguar Land Rover and its reinvigorated product portfolio.

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/18/2016 page18)