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STRONG demand for the Merseyside-made Land Rover Evoque has sent sales soaring 30% at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

JLR, which is owned by Indian company Tata Motors, said revenues hit £2.9bn in the three months to September 30.

It benefited from strong demand for the recently launched Evoque, which is produced at its Halewood plant, and a version of the Jaguar XF with a 2.2 litre diesel engine

Pre-tax profits rose 9% to £287m.Retail sales in China soared 87%, with Range Rovers and a Jaguar XJ model with a three litre engine proving popular among the countrys burgeoning middle class.

Sales in Russia were up 6%.In the UK, retail sales were up 1%, as a rise in sales at Land Rover offset a fall at Jaguar.

But the company pledged that any Chinese operation would be in addition to its Merseyside base.Last week JLR announced it would create 1,000 jobs at its factory in Solihull near Birmingham to support plans to launch 40 products over the next four years.

And earlier this year, the carmaker which employs some 21,000 workers in Merseyside and the Midlands said it will build a £355m engine plant in Wolverhampton that will potentially create thousands of jobs.

The company reported pre-tax profits of £1.1bn in the year to March 31, up from s14.6m the previous year. Revenues increased 51% to £9.9bn.The results represented a turnaround on two years earlier when the company slumped to a loss as the car market collapsed amid the global economic meltdown.

Tata Motors, controlled by billionaire Ratan Tata, bought the company from Ford for £1.5bn in June 2008.The strong performance at JLR helped boost the performance of Tata Motors.

The group's sales rose 27% to £4.5bn, while underlying profits rose 13% to £337.4m