Land Rover USA Is Surging And The Discovery Sport Is Only Just Ramping Up

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Land Rover USA sales jumped 19% to 5,382 units in May 2015, the fifth month out of the last six that Land Rover volume has crested the 5,000-unit barrier. Land Rover accomplished that feat just once in the previous twelve months.

More interesting than the brand’s surge – sales are up 25% year-to-date – is the fact that Land Rover shot off to a record start in 2015 with little impact from the LR2-replacing Discovery Sport.

The small Land Rover, available with emergencies-only third-row seating, is expected to eventually challenge for top spot on the Land Rover leaderboard, if not in the United States then globally. In the U.S., the Range Rover Sport is consistently Land Rover’s best-selling model, followed by the Range Rover and Range Rover Evoque, the latter of which is closely related to the more family-friendly Discovery Sport.

(LR4 sales, incidentally, have doubled so far this year, but that’s a follow-up to a four-year low in 2014, when sales were down 77% compared with 2005.)

Nevertheless, the departing LR2 and incoming Discovery Sport have, thus far, combined for a 62% decline through the first five months of 2015, and it’s alongside this entry-level dearth that overall Land Rover volume has increased by more than 5,500 units year-to-date. Just what might the brand do when Land Rover’s U.S. outpost finally receives a healthy number of Discovery Sports?

In May 2015, for example, when Land Rover sales increased by 846 units, the new Discovery Sport only accounted for 8.2% of total Land Rover volume. Only 440 copies of the new vehicle were sold last month, which still represented a 13% increase compared with the LR2’s year-ago total.

As the Discovery Sport ramps up, Land Rover’s two most expensive models continue to carry the load in the U.S. The iconic Range Rover and its lesser sibling, the Range Rover Sport, accounted for six out of every ten Land Rover sales last month. Each vehicle, on its own, outsold the whole Jaguar division, where sales slid 8% to just 1,204 units in May. That’s fewer than Maserati managed. It was also Jaguar’s fourth year-over-year monthly sales decline in 2015.

Comparisons with Jaguar – even when they show that Land Rover sales are routinely four times stronger than at the partner car brand; even when they manifest meaningful growth – do still tend to highlight the fact that Land Rovers are not terribly common.

But that’s not to say Land Rovers are rare everywhere. Land Rover’s market share in the brand’s home UK market grew to 2.8% through the first five months of 2015. Although Americans have registered six times more new vehicles than UK residents so far this year, Brits have actually taken ownership of 3,451 more new Land Rovers.

Land Rover’s year-to-date U.S. market share? 0.4%.

But that’s the Discovery Sport’s reason for being, to increase the brand’s standing in a core growth sector. Competitors from Audi, BMW, Acura, Lexus, and the like combined for 105,000 U.S. sales in the first five months of 2015. If the Discovery Sport manages to improve upon the LR2’s standing in that category – and it will – Land Rover’s overall tally may well explode in the latter half of the year.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.

Timothy Cain
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  • Pebble Pebble on Jun 23, 2015

    Parked in the apartment complex where I live (working poor folk, mostly) are both a Land Rover and a Range Rover. Apparently there's some demand...they stick out from the surrounding Pontiac G6/Saturns/old K cars in the parking lots.

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    • Gtem Gtem on Jun 23, 2015

      @gtem Good question about the AllSport package, you think I'd know given my obsession with these quirky things. In '96 you could definitely get a non-Allsport, with the simpler grill and "4WD" spelled out on the rear passenger door with a red '4.' Load leveling suspension can be pretty truck-y IMO, Lexus trucks oftentimes have them. With a solid rear axle it's pretty darn simple to implement. It allows for better towing/load hauling without having to stick super stiff springs out back and ruin the unladen ride.

  • Kyree Kyree on Jun 23, 2015

    Does the presence of the Discovery Sport mean the LR4's replacement will be called a Discovery once more, as it is everywhere else in the world?

  • ToolGuy This might be a good option for my spouse when it becomes available -- thought about reserving one but the $500 deposit is a little too serious. Oh sorry, that was the Volvo EX30, not the Mustang. Is Volvo part of Ford? Is the Mustang an EV? I'm so confused.
  • Mikey My late wife loved Mustangs ..We alway rented one while travelling . GM blood vetoed me purchasing one . 3 years after retirement bought an 08 rag top, followed by a 15 EB Hard top, In 18 i bought a low low mileage 05 GT rag with a stick.. The car had not been properly stored. That led to rodent issues !! Electrical nightmare. Lots of bucks !! The stick wasn't kind to my aging knees.. The 05 went to a long term dedicated Mustang guy. He loves it .. Today my garage tenant is a sweet 19 Camaro RS rag 6yl Auto. I just might take it out of hibernation this weekend. The Mustang will always hold a place in my heart.. Kudos to Ford for keeping it alive . I refuse to refer to the fake one by that storied name .
  • Ajla On the Mach-E, I still don't like it but my understanding is that it helps allow Ford to continue offering a V8 in the Mustang and F-150. Considering Dodge and Ram jumped off a cliff into 6-cylinder land there's probably some credibility to that story.
  • Ajla If I was Ford I would just troll Stellantis at all times.
  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
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