Land Rover Breaks U.S. Sales Records With High-End Models, Discovery Sport Is Almost Here

2014 was a record-setting year for the Land Rover brand in the United States, and the brand accomplished this feat even though the majority of Land Rover sales were generated by upper-crust Range Rover vehicles.

With the Discovery Sport set to arrive shortly in place of the oft-rejected LR2 (née Freelander), the potential for greater growth at the Land Rover brand becomes much more apparent.

• 51,465 Land Rovers sold in America in 2014

• Two top tier models account for six out of every ten Land Rover sales

• Discovery Sport expected to be volume model

60% of Land Rover sales in the U.S. in 2014 were produced by the Range Rover Sport (base price: $63,350) and Range Rover (base price: $83,495). The Range Rover Evoque, a very premium-priced small luxury utility, was the brand’s third-ranked vehicle. The Evoque was responsible for nearly a quarter of all Land Rover sales, more than the LR2 and LR4 combined.

Combined sales of the Range Rover trio rose 9% to 43,167. Land Rover sold more Range Rover Sports than at any time since 2006, its first full year on sale. Range Rover sales rose to a nine-year high. Range Rover Evoque volume increased for the third consecutive year. 34,990 Evoques have been sold since the nameplate went on sale in the U.S. early in the fourth-quarter of 2011.

Regardless of status – luxury, premium, upmarket, volume, mainstream, niche – it’s very unusual to see a brand ignited by its most costly models. At BMW, for example, the brand’s two entry-level car lines and two entry-level utilities account for 61% of U.S. sales.

Look at Mazda on the opposite side of the coin: only 23% of its sales are produced by its flagship sedan and top-tier crossover, the 6 and CX-9. At Audi, it’s the A3, A4, Q3, and Q5 that do the heavy lifting (to the tune of 59% of all Audi USA sales), not the A6, A7, A8, R8, and Q7, which account for only 31% of Audi sales.

Thus, if Land Rover’s top-tier Range Rover models continue to steadily increase their popularity but are finally joined by an entry-level variant that bears a traditional portion of the burden, Land Rover’s record-setting sales accumulation is likely to expand at a much faster pace than it did in 2014.

Overall new vehicle sales rose 6% and SUV/crossover sales were up 12%. Land Rover, which did indeed sell more SUVs than at any time in its history, only posted a 3% year-over-year improvement. Even if Discovery Sport sales begin at mid-pack levels in the small luxury utility vehicle arena – 20,000 annual U.S. sales, for instance – and the brand’s other models failed to increase their volume, Land Rover could still potentially sell more than 65,000 vehicles in 2015. Who knows, diesel engines might help, too.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.