Jaguar Land Rover overtook Audi for the third position as 188 units were sold in February 2021 against 298 units with 36.9 per cent de-growth
The luxury car sales in the month of February 2021 did endure a huge drop of 27.4 per cent as Mercedes-Benz remained on top of the charts ahead of BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Audi. However, when we look in deep, it is easy to see the progress made by BMW and JLR. The former was just 23 units down on Mercedes’ cumulative domestic tally while the latter beat Audi by a single unit.
Jaguar Land Rover posted a total of 188 units last month as against 298 units during the same period in 2020 with a Year-on-Year volume decline of 36.9 per cent while Audi managed to record 187 units as against 314 units in February 2020 with a steeper decline of 40.4 per cent. From Mercedes on top to Porsche in the seventh position, the YoY de-growth across the board was evident.
This was mainly due to the slow recovery the luxury segments are making since the economic slowdown created by the health crisis last year. The carmakers are concentrating on bringing in new products mainly in the entry-level luxury space to garner more customers and BMW has lined up a number of new launches for the remaining part of this calendar year.
Mercedes-Benz will introduce the facelifted E-Class on March 16 and Audi will debut the electrified e-tron and e-tron Sportback within the next three months and they will be brought in via CBU route. As for Volvo, three new launches are in the pipeline as the XC40 Recharge electric SUV will be accompanied by the facelifted XC60 and S90 while the recently unveiled C40 can be expected to launch in 2022.
The Audi e-tron will rival Mercedes-Benz EQC and the upcoming Jaguar I-Pace scheduled to launch on March 23. The reservations for the I-Pace commenced in November 2020 and it will be equipped with a 90 kWh lithium-ion battery pack having a driving range of 480 km on a single charge in the WLTP cycle. It develops 394 bhp maximum power and 696 Nm, and a twin motor system drives all four wheels.
The Jaguar I-Pace will be offered in S, SE and HSE trims and is claimed to do 0 to 100 kmph in just 4.8 seconds before topping out 200 kmph. The global sales of JLR have been recovering courtesy of the increase in sales in China and locally, the Land Rover Defender has been well received in recent months.