SALES of Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) continued to show improvement during May, new figures show.

Parent group Tata Motors published group monthly wholesale figures for its global range – including the UK operations it bought from Ford for £1.15bn in 2008 – which showed a total rise of 11%.

Global sales for both the Jaguar and Land Rover marques during May were 22,296 vehicles, which was a 17% improvement compared with May the previous year.

Broken down, they showed that Jaguar suffered an 18% fall in vehicle sales of 4,221, while Land Rover achieved a 30% increase with 18,075 sales.

Cumulative sales for both brands for the fiscal year so far show a 13% increase, at 41,732 vehicles.

In their own right, the cumulative figures reveal a 16% drop for Jaguar with sales of 7,305 vehicles, while Land Rover grew sales by 22% to 34,427 vehicles.

These most recent sales figures can be slightly misleading, in that the UK Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders works off retail sales, while the Tata group issues wholesale figures.

Retail sales are the revenues car companies receive when models reach the final customer, whereas wholesale figures are based on revenues from retail or joint venture partners.