Jaguar Land Rover asks British Government for Loan

Jaguar Land Rover is reportedly seeking a £1 billion ($1.3 billion) loan from the British government. Though the automaker has yet to officially comment on this possibility, the automaker has already submitted the request and the government could make a decision on the matter in the next two weeks.

Jaguar Land Rover's CEO, David Smith, has already suggested publicly that British car makers should get government support to help them through the economic crisis. "Unless we introduce further measures to reignite the UK economy, there is significant risk," commented Smith.

The automaker, like much of the auto industry right now, has suffered a downturn in sales. Land Rover in particular has been hit hard, suffering a thirty-seven percent drop in the United States for the first ten months of 2008, while sales in Britain fell twenty-seven percent in the same time frame.

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Jaguar Sales Rise 8 Percent in 2008

Trouncing the red-ink trends of most automobile makers in 2008, Jaguar posted an 8 percent sales increase for 2008, selling 65,000 vehicles worldwide. Jaguar stopped reporting sales figures earlier this year when it was purchased by Tata Motors, but Managing Director Mike O'Driscoll revealed the good news Tuesday at the 2009 North American International Auto Show.

In the United States, sales were down 4 percent, to 15,500 units, O'Driscoll said. According to Automotive News, Jaguar's U.S. sales have dropped 75 percent since peaking at 61,204 units in 2003, when Ford was the luxury carmaker's owner.

Gary Temple, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover North America said the company expects Jaguar sales to be flat this year. Jaguar showed its 2010 XKR and an all-new XFR at the 2009 NAIAS, both of which will be available in March.

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