Jaguar Land Rover, the British car maker owned by India’s Tata Motors, aims to double its sales in Hong Kong over the next five years with an eye on boosting its profile both locally and in the mainland market, according to Joseph Lau, Hong Kong Brand General Manager of distributor Inchcape. “Hong Kong is a unique market because it is not very big … but there are so many affluent Chinese visitors coming here,” said Lau. “They see what is popular among Hong Kong people and view those brands as high quality. That way they get automatic recognition on the mainland.” Inchcape is using local launches of new Jaguar Land Rover models to also target prospective mainland buyers. The company hopes to double local sales of JLR vehicles in the next five years, up from an expected 135 Jaguar deliveries this year and 250 Land Rover deliveries. The mainland is set to overtake the U.S. as JLR’s biggest market after the UK as early as this year. Land Rover’s mainland sales rose 54% in the first 10 months of last year to 27,761 units, while Jaguar’s rose 91% to 4,382 cars. JLR plans to open 100 Chinese dealerships by the end of the year, up from 80 at the end of October. Demand for some Land Rover models, such as the newly launched Evoque, is such that Chinese buyers ordering a new car may have to wait up to one year for delivery. Inchcape is in the process of spending around HKD2 billion to add 16 new Chinese dealerships by 2016 to the four it now operates there.