(Bloomberg) -- Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc’s best quarterly profit in seven years helped the British luxury-car maker’s Indian parent beat estimates after surging orders for its SUVs.

Higher sales and reduced supply costs lifted pretax profit 73% to £627 million ($800 million) in the third quarter, Tata Motors Ltd. said Friday. Revenue rose 23% to £7.4 billion, accounting for about three-quarters of the Indian company’s total sales.

The Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Defender models accounted for the bulk of JLR’s order book, which stood at 148,000. 

The British company is undergoing a major strategic shift towards electric vehicles. It’s due to launch the first electric Range Rover this year and has already had more than 16,000 sign-ups for the model after opening the waiting list in December.

On a call with journalists, JLR Chief Executive Officer Adrian Mardell criticized “misinformation” about thefts of Range Rovers, which have widely been reported to have become a common target for criminals. “It is not Britain’s most stolen vehicle,” he said, citing government data for 2023. 

He called on insurers to do more to provide coverage for owners of new Range Rovers, which have seen much lower levels of thefts than slightly older models. His remarks come after a number of customers complained of high premiums or, in some cases, that they couldn’t get coverage at all because of thefts. 

“There is no reason whatsoever why any insurance company should not gladly and readily insure those new vehicles - zero reason,” Mardell said, adding that JLR was having to help fund police security at ports to tackle the problem of cars being stolen and shipped abroad.

Read More: Jaguar Owner Overtakes Maruti Suzuki as India’s Top Automaker

Tata Motors regained its position as India’s most valuable carmaker on Tuesday due to its strong position in the SUV and electric car markets. 

Net income for Tata Motors more than doubled to 70.3 billion rupees ($848 million) in the three months through December, according to a stock exchange filing Friday. The Mumbai-based carmaker exceeded the average analyst estimate of 47.76 billion rupees and delivered its fifth straight quarter of profit.

Revenue climbed 25% to 1.1 trillion rupees, while total costs rose 20%. Tata Motors also reduced net debt by 95 billion rupees to 292 billion rupees and expects performance to improve in the next quarter. 

JLR said its wholesales jumped 27% to 101,043, excluding China joint venture Chery Jaguar Land Rover, as more vehicles were delivered to customers because of improved supply. 

The outlook for its home market is brightening after the UK produced more than 1 million vehicles last year for the first time since before the pandemic as supply chain constraints eased.

To accelerate the assembly of EVs, Tata Group is building a £4 billion battery plant in the UK that will supply battery-powered models. The plant will start mass production in 2026. 

Work has begun on the site for the new battery factory in Somerset, UK, Tata Motors Chief Financial Officer P.B. Balaji confirmed on a call with reporters. Tata is also setting up a battery factory in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

--With assistance from Ravil Shirodkar.

(Updates with CEO comments beginning in fifth paragraph, additional details throughout.)

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.