Jaguar Land Rover says that it is on course to sell more than half a million cars this year — for the first time in its history. This follows the news that the group achieved record sales in three of its global markets last month.

JLR sold a total of 38,017 vehicles in May, Land Rover’s share being 32,412 and Jaguar’s share being 5,605 . Sales of the new Discovery Sport remained strong, at 5,624.

Meanwhile, there were solid sales performances from the Defender (up 40%), Discovery (up 8%), Range Rover (up 7%) and Range Rover Sport (up 3%). In the first five months of 2015, JLR has delivered 199,610 vehicles globally — Land Rover accounting for 169,266 and Jaguar 30,344.

Andy Goss, JLR group sales operations director, said: “I am delighted to see that three of our key regions — the UK, Europe and North America — have had their best-ever May sales.

"After a fifth successive year of growth in sales, we anticipate retailing over half a million vehicles this year for the first time in the company’s history.

"With three all-new Jaguar vehicles already announced for 2015-16 — the XF, XE and all-new F-PACE — Jaguar is setting an impressive product cadence in its 80th year. ”