Jaguar Land Rover’s sales in China fell by 85% in February due to the continuing coronavirus outbreak.
The 海角视频’s biggest car maker’s sales slide by 85% in what was once its biggest market compared to the same period in 2019.
The news comes after a lengthy period where slowing sales in China had been reversed.
For much of 2019 Jaguar Land Rover had struggled, due to what it had described as the triple headwinds of declining demand for diesel vehicles, ongoing Brexit uncertainty and slowing sales in China.
A Jaguar Land Rover spokesman said: “Jaguar Land Rover sales in China grew on average about 25% year on year for the six months from July through December 2019 and we continued to see strong growth for the first three weeks of January.
“The coronavirus has significantly impacted China sales with February retails down around 85% versus the prior year.”
Jaguar Land Rover’s factory in China, a joint venture with Chinese car maker Chery, had been closed for an extended period following the end of the lunar holiday, due to the coronavirus outbreak, but reopened on February 24.
The return of employees has been staged, with production set to be ramped up as the number of workers and demand both increase.
Most Read
However, Jaguar Land Rover said it expects demand to increase gradually in China.
The company spokesman added: “In the first half of the month about 20% of dealers were open which has since improved to now over 80% although most are still operating with reduced staffing and facilities.
“Jaguar Land Rover expects this to improve over the course of March, however, retail sales are expected to recover more gradually.”
Want more business news straight to your inbox?
BusinessLive is your home for business news from around the country - and you can stay in touch with all the latest news through our email alerts.
You can sign up to receive morning news bulletins from every region we cover and to weekly email bulletins covering key economic sectors from manufacturing to technology and enterprise. And we'll send out breaking news alerts for any stories we think you can't miss.
Visit our email preference centre to sign up to all the latest news from BusinessLive.
The car maker also warned of the impact in other markets and the spokesman added: “
“The spread of the virus to other markets such as South Korea, Japan, and Italy will also impact sales in those markets.”
Jaguar Land Rover also repeated its warning about the coronavirus impacting on its financial results.
The company spokesman said: “Recognizing the present situation is highly uncertain and could change, the reduction in China sales resulting from the coronavirus presently is estimated to reduce Jaguar Land Rover’s full year EBIT margin by about 1%.”