0 to £125,000 in 8 minutes: Why the new Range Rover is driving up sales for Jaguar Land Rover

Driving through the Cotswolds behind the wheel of the new Range Rover, it’s easy to think, well this is a car most of us - me included - can only dream of being able to afford.

But yet there are 10,000 people at least who can afford the - on average - £125,000 price tag.

And when it was launched in October, the first one was bought within 8 minutes - online.

Someone, somewhere in the world, was on their computer or their phone and decided to press the button and spend £125,000 without seeing the car.

For the next 24 hours a car was sold every 9 minutes the same way, online.

And thank goodness they were - because 10,000 orders means £1.2billion coming into the bank account of Jaguar Land Rover in the Midlands.

Like all car firms, it’s had challenges in recent years.

Heavily-dependant on diesel, it was wrong-footed (along with every traditional car firm) by the UK’s and the world’s swift switch to electric.

You can’t stop making diesels on the Friday and start making electrics on the Monday. But that’s exactly what they had to start aiming towards.

Then there was the pandemic when production slowed and now the world shortage of semi-conductors - the computer chips which make cars go - there are about 70 of them in the new Range Rover - which has slowed production again.

Cash flow took a big hit. The chip shortage should ease by the end of the year.

JLR is turning itself around from making petrol and diesel cars to manufacturing electric cars - it’s like turning round an oil tanker.

And I’m told that electrification transformation is going well, and will produce some exciting new models - not least the Jaguar brand which needs a jump start.

It’s still not seen as a “cool” brand. Young people don’t want to buy Jaguars. They may want to buy a new electric one I’m told.

So if you can sell 10,000 Range Rovers - one every nine minutes - at about £125,000 a pop then you can breath easy as you try to transform the company into an electric brand.

Good news for all the plants - Solihull where the car is made and Wolverhampton where the engines were developed and are produced.

Castle Bromwich I’m told is part of the electric revolution.

And who are the customers?

I was sharing the car with a journalist who writes for Hello and a magazine in Switzerland - a country not short of high net-worth individuals.

There was another journalist who convinces high-end watch and clothing brands to give him some of their products so they can be seen IN a Range Rover.

It often works and the sales of those products go up.

This car is aimed not just at petrol heads, but at people who have a certain lifestyle, or who want to aspire to that lifestyle.

As the Cotswold sun shone through the panoramic sunroof, the atmosphere among JLR directors was as sunny.

Even they have been surprised at the speed with which this car is being bought. It’s simply phenomenal, they said.