JAGUAR LAND ROVER AT THE CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW

Want to see the future of Jaguar? We’ll have it right here on the Jaguar Land Rover stand at this year’s Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto, which opens to the public today (Friday), writes Lindsay Duffield, President, Jaguar Land Rover Canada.

We’re thrilled to be showcasing the remarkable new Jaguar C-X17, Jaguar’s first-ever sports crossover concept. With its advanced lightweight, all-aluminum architecture, this sleek five-door is going to form the basis for a ground-breaking new range of future Jaguars.

Alongside it will be the car we all can’t wait to drive; the 550-horsepower F-TYPE R Coupe. Interest in the ‘R’ is already huge, and the show will provide the first opportunity for local buyers to see it in the metal.

The timing for the Canadian debut of the F-TYPE Coupe line-up couldn’t be more perfect. The first cars start to arrive in April, right at the start of our peak April/May/June sports car selling season.

Of course the C-X17 and F-TYPE R Coupe will join the full line-up of 2014 Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles on the stand - including the latest Range Rover Long-wheelbase models, the hugely-successful Range Rover Sport, refreshed LR4 and new Evoque models.

On the Jaguar side, we’ll be showcasing everything from the new XF sports sedan, powered by a 240-hp turbocharged four-cylinder, all the way to the new supercharged XJR, and the thrilling 550-hp XKR-S coupe and convertible.

Last year was quite a landmark year for Jaguar Land Rover Canada - one that saw Jaguar become the fastest-growing automotive brand and Land Rover experience its best sales year in our history.

The results were truly impressive; our best year ever with sales of 6,399 vehicles - a 30 percent increase over 2012. Jaguar alone saw a 96 percent growth, thanks in part to the availability of all-wheel drive for the XF and XJ models.

It was the same story with Land Rover. As we expected, the all-new Range Rover Sport proved to be a major hit with consumers, with over 1,800 cars sold last year. Sales also soared 52 percent for our flagship Range Rover and almost 1,800 Range Rover Evoque vehicles were sold, representing a 32 percent increase over 2012.

What all these dry numbers show is the remarkable and ever-growing level of interest in Jaguar and Land Rover products from Canadian luxury consumers.

There is no better example of this than the series of select customer driving events we held last fall. These were joint Jaguar Land Rover programs we staged in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary, attracting well over 1,000 prospects for the opportunity to experience our newest models. Naturally, we’re planning to do the same again this year.

From a corporate standpoint, Jaguar Land Rover is currently implementing one of the biggest changes ever to its corporate identity, with new colors, new logo type-faces and new, dramatic architectural changes to the infrastructure.

So far, only three dealerships in the world reflect these changes, and I’m pleased to say that two of the three are in Canada, both in Quebec. One of my prime focuses in 2014 will be to help implement these changes to our other 21 Canadian stores.

But that’s in the future. Over the coming 10 days, Toronto will be hosting the biggest car show in Canada with an expected 300,000 visitors. If you’re heading there, please stop by our stand and see what the future has in store for Jaguar and Land Rover.