Jaguar Land Rover to SHUT Solihull for 2 weeks as China sales drop

Jaguar Land Rover are shutting their Solihull Plant for two weeks this month as drastically lower sales in China require production adjustment.

Jaguar Land Rover aren’t having the easiest time at the moment, with a big part of their sales reliant on the, ever decreasing, demand for diesel-engined cars and Brexit uncertainties weighing heavily.

That unfortunate storm has already led to JLR putting their Castle Bromwich workforce – responsible for the Jaguar XE, XF and XJ – on a three day week for the rest of the year, and now, in the face of falling sales in China, Solihull is going to shut for a fortnight.

JLR’s sales in September were down by 12.3 per cent, but that headline number hides a pretty decent performance.

In fact, UK sales were down only 0.8 per cent and European sales down by 4.7 per cent, well below the big drops seen overall as car makers struggled to get their cars WLTP certified. But the big drop in demand is due to sales in China.

China sales were down by 46.2 per cent as China’s car market was hit by Trump antics, new tariffs and price competition. But despite this JLR remain bullish, with Felix Brautigam, JLR’s Chief Commercial Officer, saying:

For Jaguar, we are continuing to see positive customer response to new products to market. The all-electric I-PACE and the sporty E-PACE compact SUV in particular, which have only recently joined our line-up in China, are driving demand globally.

While sales of Land Rover models ahead of upcoming new and refreshed models are lower, we are encouraged to see strong customer demand for the new Range Rover Velar and Range Rover and Range Rover Sport Plug-in Hybrid variants as we head into the winter months.

JLR say the workforce in Solihull will be paid normally during the two week shutdown.