Jaguar Land Rover look set for 5,000 job LOSSES

Jaguar Land Rover’s plans to cut cost by £2.5 billion as losses mount will result in job losses in the UK of up to 5,000, reports the FT.

Last month we reported that Jaguar Land Rover had suffered a £90 million loss in Q3 as a host of factors – including Brexit, diesel demonisation and trade tensions in China – conspired to make the shining star of UK car manufacturing look under siege.

JLR announced they were embarking on a £2.5 billion cost-cutting exercise to stem the losses, and now the Financial Times is reporting that is going to mean job losses in the UK of up to 5,000 in the New Year.

According to an analyst from Bernstein in Hong Kong, JLR has been seriously mis-managed in recent years, with a range of disappointing car launches as well as hedging issues which have cost it billions.

It’s also pointed out in the FT’s report that JLR has only three cars in its range – the Range Rover Velar, Jaguar E-Pace and Jaguar I-Pace – where sales are rising, that it suffers from internally competing models and that the Range Rover Sport and Range Rover Velar have too big a market overlap.

Whether or not the job losses at JLR in the New Year are as high as 5,000 in the UK, it’s hard to see JLR surviving without culling cars which don’t sell, moving more manufacturing abroad (the Discovery is already gone, and the Defender looks likely to follow), rationalising competing models and, perhaps, turning Jaguar in to an electric car maker.