JLR sure to grow volume and market share in 2018: SuriMumbai, Jul 11 (PTI) Jaguar Land Rover India, whichhas clocked a 66 per cent volume growth in theJanuary-June period, is hopeful of maintaining the momentumthrough the rest of the year and expects to “close 2018 with arobust double-digit growth that will be much above theindustry average.”Buoyed by a strong product portfolio, in the firsthalf of 2018, the Tata Motors subsidiary sold 2,579 units, up66 per cent over the same six-month period in 2017. In theentire 2017, its volume stood at 3,954 units, up 49 per centover 2016.This had helped the British brand cross its owntargets both in volume as well as in marketshare terms, whichcrossed 11 per cent in 2017 against a target of 10 per cent.”The brand JLR is becoming popular by the day. We aresure to more or less continue (the 66 per cent volume growth)momentum of the first half into the rest of the year. We aresure of clocking robust double-digit growth, which will bemuch above the industry growth rate,” Rohit Suri, presidentand managing director of JLR India, told PTI.He attributed the good H1 show to “the good run thatthe Discovery Sport and the Evoque from the Land Rover stableand the XE and XF from the Jaguar platform.”On the other hand, the market leader Mercedes-Benzgrossed 8,061 units, up 12.4 per cent over the six-monthsperiod in 2017, and the No 2 player BMW sold 5,171 units inthe same period, clipping at around 14 per cent. And theSwedish player Volvo reported over 30 per cent spike involumes at 1,242 units.advertisementThe third largest player Audi has not yet disclosedits half-yearly sales figuresIn the beginning of the year, JLR said it would have abig product offensive this year with 10 launches, includingvariants.When asked about market share target for 2018, hesaid, “we will definitely grow the market share. We closed2017 with 11 per cent of the market pie, but refused toproffer a number for the same in 2018.”As an industry the luxury car segment should gross at41,000 to 42,000 units this year, he added.Asked about the pre-owned car business, Suri said, theApproved business, which is the brand name of its secondscar arm, is doing pretty well clocking around 20 per cent ofits new sales.Asked whether they are planning to increase engineproduction from the Pune facility, he said, “we continue tolook at more growth opportunities. But there is no immediateplans to massively scale up our operations here. At the sametime let me add that we do a lot of things in Pune and notjust assembly. One of them is engines.”On whether they will have small cars in the country, asegment thats growing at a much faster clip and which hashelped its larger rivals like Mercedes and BMW to cornervolumes, Suri said, “there is no immediate plan that isIndia-specific. We’ll continue to roll in our global productsto this market as we don’t look at any India-specific productin the short to medium-term.”Meanwhile, Suri said the company opened its 27thintegrated sales-cum-service outlet in Chennai today.The second outlet in the Southern metro is located onthe Chennai-Bengaluru highway and is one of the largest as itsspread over 2,800 meters.With this the company has 27 outlets in 25 cities andmay add two more this year, Suri added. PTI BEN DSK DSK DSKRDS RDS RDS read more