Yesterday afternoon, the first new Range Rover Evoque was ready for sale, hot off the assembly line at the company’s facility in Halewood, UK. The company validated on Monday that they plan to increase their expenditure on products for the following five years by 1.5bn Euros per annum, instead of their earlier set target of 1bn Euros per annum.
This is part of their strategy that was announced early in the year in regards to taking 40 important product actions in a period of 5 years for both the brands. The expenditure will be spent on creating new engines, models, vehicle lines and technologies, according to the company.
This ramp up follows increasing sales for the brand that Tata Motors acquired in June 2008. Sales of JLR in the global markets increased by 17% in May, compared to the previous years, with sales so far being 13% more than the same period last year.
The profits of the company after tax increased by 1.04bn Euros in the fiscal year that ended March 31 that was a great turnaround for the company, which just resumed making profits a year before.
According to the company, the Evoque is one of their most important releases till now, being the first new product launched by them after the takeover by Tata Motors. They expect this car to become the fastest selling model in the Range Rover brand, having already amassed 18,000 orders globally so far.
The Evoque is currently being manufactured at their Halewood facility located in the Merseyside area that has created 1,000 jobs. The Evoque is Range Rover’s smallest and fuel efficient model to date, targeting a more slick and urban audience. JLR undertook an ambitious marketing project that included working with Victoria Beckham.
The Evoque is available with a starting price of 27,955 pounds for the two wheel drive, basic 5 door model, and for 44,320 pounds for the automatic 5 speed gear box Si4 Dynamic coupe that has a fixed full sized glass roof.