JLR Curbs Production After Poor Sales Figures

In other Land Rover related news, JLR has announced production cuts at certain Jaguar and Land Rover factories, due to reduced sales stemming from a number of uncertainties in the UK auto market. At Jaguar's Castle Bromwich plant in Birmingham, they produced no cars for a month surrounding the Christmas holidays, and another two weeks of shutdowns are planned as well.

Meanwhile, Land Rover has scaled back production at its Halewood plant in Merseyside for similar reasons. In particular, the dip in the market has been attributed to Brexit uncertainty and concerns about the future viability of diesel vehicles. New emissions restrictions and smog zones in congested downtown areas have made diesel-powered vehicles much less desirable for many UK consumers.

A Jaguar Land Rover spokesman has said that there have been no job losses related to these shutdowns.

Despite all of this, JLR continues to grow; the company stressed it had achieved another record-breaking year in vehicle sales for the seventh consecutive year.

The Halewood plant builds Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport, both of which will be scaled back. There are no plans to cut production at Solihull, the traditional home of Land Rover. Solihull currently produces the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, and Discovery models, as well as the Jaguar F-Pace.

According to JLR, demand for new cars is down 5.7 percent in 2017 in the UK and Europe. Birmingham MP Jack Dromey, apparently pleading for a hand up for JLR from the government, said: “Jaguar Land Rover is a world-class company that has transformed the lives of thousands working in the Castle Bromwich and Solihull plants. The company is now being hard hit by the mishandling of Brexit and the transition from diesel. The Government has got to get this right because otherwise, the problems will mount for a fine company and a fine workforce.”