Jon Wackett, JLR’s general manager, fleet and business sales, said the company is focusing on offering desirable vehicles, efficient engines and a strong total cost of ownership proposition, with the aim of making drivers and fleet managers advocates of its model range. It has a sales team working across both brands.

New, significantly more efficient, ‘Ingenium’ four-cylinder diesel engines in the Evoque and Discovery Sport, with the Jaguar range expanding to include the XE alongside the new XF resulted in 44% of JLR’s total sales last year being recorded as ‘fleet’ – this compares to 37% in 2013.

Within that, Wackett said growth has been particularly encouraging within sub-25 and 25-plus vehicle fleets, and also within contract hire and leasing sector. As a whole, sales within these sectors had grown from 14,055 in 2014 to 21,034 in 2015 – a 50% increase.

JLR is aiming for another 50% increase in those areas this year, which would bring volumes over 30,000, or more than twice the total for 2014, helped by the F-Pace SUV. In the first quarter of 2016, Jaguar sales had tripled to 2,900 units, while Land Rover was up 53% to 5,360.

But, despite 50 ‘product actions’ by the end of 2020, Wackett sees this as the last year of rapid growth: “We will continue to bring fleet and business products to market, but we don’t expect to see 50% growth,” he said. “These are the two years where that was going to happen, but it’s not volume for volume’s sake. I’d much rather be steady and deliver a good sustainable long-term volume benefit to the business.”