Jaguar Sees Nothing But Gains in Future; Land Rover Discovery Unveiled

LOS ANGELES – While Jaguar sales in the U.S. through October were down 8.1% to 12,837 units, a top official sees nothing but upside in the coming years.

“(With) the vehicles coming out now, we expect a steady, double-digit increase year-on-year-on-year from 2015 onwards,” Andy Goss, group sales operations director-Jaguar Land Rover, tells WardsAuto on the sidelines of the 2014 Los Angeles auto show.

Goss says JLR has been hamstrung in the U.S. and globally by low inventory, but he sees the situation changing with recent investments.

“Our stock turn in the States at the moment is quite incredible and we’d like to get a supply of more vehicles in the marketplace,” Goss says.

Easing the inventory crunch will be JLR’s new Ingenium low-emissions, lightweight gasoline and diesel mills, going into production in early 2015 in Wolverhampton, U.K.

The upcoming Jaguar XE will feature an Ingenium engine, which Goss says is a key element of Jaguar’s green plan. Other, “game-changing powertrains that we can’t quite talk about yet” also are in the works, he notes, while discounting hydrogen fuel cells for propulsion.

“We know other people are looking at that. That is not our target at the moment. We are concentrating upon other aspects,” Goss says.

Here at the show, Jaguar unveils more variants of its F-Type coupe and convertible, announcing a 550-hp version of the F-Type RS convertible and saying a manual transmission will be available on ’16-model F-Types.

F-Type sales are up a hefty 78.4% through October to 3,287 units, WardsAuto data shows.

Meanwhile, the new Land Rover Discovery Sport makes it U.S. debut. Slotting above the Evoque in the brand’s CUV lineup, it is the first model of the upcoming Discovery sub-brand.

The ’15 Discovery Sport, on sale in the U.S. next spring and starting at $37,995, will make 240 hp from Ford’s 2.0L 4-cyl. EcoBoost engine mated to a 9-speed automatic transmission by ZF, which also is used in the ’15 Acura TLX and ’15 Jeep Cherokee.

The Discovery Sport is expected to transition to an Ingenium engine in late 2015 for its second model year.

All-wheel drive is standard on the Discovery Sport, as is seating for five. Optional is a third row accommodating two more passengers.

A Land Rover spokesman won’t put a target on the sales potential of the Discovery Sport in the U.S. other than to say volume will be significant.

“Given that it’s a similar size to Freelander there’s a good starting point to build on and we’re going to expand on that sales pace.”

Sales of the Freelander compact SUV, known as the LR2 in the U.S., rose 30.4% through October to 3,424 units.

Jaguar Land Rover promises “50 significant product actions over the next five years” globally.

The British automaker’s total sales in the U.S. are up 2.4% through October, to 54,904.

Land Rover makes up the bulk of that volume, with deliveries rising 6.1% to 42,067.

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