Jaguar Land Rover posts $12M loss in latest quarterly earnings report. Here's why

Jaguar Land Rover swung to a quarterly loss as global semiconductor shortages continued to hit sales.

The UK automaker reported a 9 million pounds ($12 million) loss before tax for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of 439 million pounds in the same quarter last year.

JLR's earning before interest and tax (EBIT) margin was 1.4 percent for the quarter.

Retail sales fell 38 percent to 80,126 vehicles as the automaker suffered from low inventories because of chip shortages, JLR owner Tata Motors said in a statement on Monday.

The Jaguar brand suffered its lowest quarterly sales since 2013 as Jaguar Land Rover focused scarce microchips on the more profitable Land Rover brand.

Jaguar Land Rover production during the quarter jumped by more than 40 percent from the preceding quarter, indicating a recovery in deliveries, P.B. Balaji, Tata Motors's CFO, said during an earnings call. 

"We are seeing an easing of pressure on semiconductor supply and production," Balaji said. "We expect improved production, wholesales in the coming quarter and retails as well. Overall, we expect to see getting back to normalcy in the coming quarter."

JLR's global order book is at a record 155,000 vehicles including 30,000 orders for the new-generation Range Rover even before deliveries start this quarter.

The luxury unit is also on track to achieve its target of reaching a profit margin of 10 percent or more by the year ending March 31, 2026, Tata Motors said.

JLR's success is crucial for Tata Motors, which saw shuttered factories and dealerships last year after India's government enforced strict stay-at-home measures to curb the coronavirus's spread. India has reported more than 41 million Covid cases and nearing half a million deaths through Monday.

JLR set up a "full-time mission control center" to limit the damage from the chip shortage, CFO Adrian Mardell said in July.

JLR plans to electrify its lineup and ditch combustion engines at Jaguar, the smaller of its two brands, by 2025. Land Rover will get its first full-electric model in 2024.

Tata Motors  posted a loss of 15.2 billion rupees ($204 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a 29.1 billion-rupee profit in the same period a year earlier.

Bloomberg and Reuters contributed to this report