Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover to confirm record of 1.5bn pounds profits

London, May 27 (ANI): Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover is likely to confirm having achieved a pre-tax profit of more than 1.5 billion pounds.

The luxury car maker is expected to post profits of between 1.5 billion pounds and 1.6 billion pounds for the year up to March 31, up from a record 1.1 billion pounds last year.

The increase is because of a surging demand for its cars in Asia and the success of the Range Rover Evoque, The Telegraph reports.

The figures issued from JLR's parent company Tata Motors are likely to show that China is now a bigger market for the car maker than the UK.

JLR sold 243,621 cars in the year 2011. In March, JLR reported its best-ever month, with more than 45,000 cars sold and year-on-year sales growth of up to 40 percent.LR insiders believe that the company could eventually produce 500,000 cars a year.

To keep up with demand, JLR is looking to expand all three of its UK plants at Halewood, Castle Bromwich and Solihull and is building a new engine factory in Wolverhampton.

The car maker also plans to produce cars in China for the domestic market.

A source close to the company said JLR plans to "sweat" its UK sites over the next 18 months for extra capacity before exploring the potential for a new car plant in the country. (ANI)