Jaguar Land Rover blames the worldwide shortage of microchips for a pre-tax loss of £302 million in the second quarter, as sales in the UK slump.

In the same quarter last year, the company - owned by India's Tata Motors - made a profit of £65 million.

Sales to dealers were down 12.8% and retail sales - at 92,710 vehicles including China - were down 18.4%. In the UK, sales nearly halved - down 47.6%.

Adrian Mardell, Jaguar Land Rover's Chief Financial Officer, said: "The global shortage of semiconductors continued to constrain our production, sales and financial performance in the second quarter but we're encouraged to see the continuing strong demand for our products with order books at new record levels."

Looking ahead, the company says the semiconductor shortage remains 'dynamic and difficult to forecast'.

However, it expects to see a gradual recovery starting in the second half of the next financial year.

To mitigate the damage the company will prioritise the production of higher margin vehicles for the available supply of semiconductors and manage costs to bring down the break-even point for the business.

Thierry Bollore, Jaguar Land Rover's Chief Executive Officer, said: "The global semi-conductor shortage remains challenging but I'm pleased to see the actions we have been implementing reduce the impact. With strong customer demand with a record order book we are well placed to return to strong financial performance as semiconductor supply begins to improve."

Sales of all models were down except for the new Land Rover Defender, up 70.4% year-on-year.

Total revenue for the company in Q2 was £3.9 billion.