JAGUAR Land Rover enjoyed an impressive near 20 per cent worldwide sales surge last year – with the hugely lucrative Chinese market the star performer.

Figures just released by the Midlands’ biggest manufacturer showed JLR sold a total of 232,839 vehicles in 2010, up 19 per cent on the previous year.

And the biggest growth market for the vehicle maker was China, the world’s fastest-growing economic power with a rapidly emerging car sector.

JLR sales in the US soared by 18 per cent while the UK saw a healthy 13 per cent rise in turnover.

The global sales successes followed a dramatic upturn in fortunes for JLR last year, with the vehicle maker reversing major losses during 2009 to announce profits of nearly half a billion pounds in the second and third quarters of last year.

The record six months under Tata followed hard on the heels of the firm’s about-turn over plans to close either Castle Bromwich or Solihull, originally announced in September 2009.