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Jaguar Land Rover in two-week shutdown as sales struggle

2126 Views 8 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Riggald
Interesting in multiple ways.

Car maker Jaguar Land Rover is to shut down its main plant for two weeks to reflect "fluctuating demand" - after sales to China were hit by the country's burgeoning trade war with the US.

The Solihull factory, which employs 9,000 people, will cease production for a fortnight from 22 October.

It comes after earlier this year 1,000 agency staff at the site were axed while another plant in Castle Bromwich saw production cut back to a three-day week.

Latest figures showed JLR sold 57,114 vehicles in September, 12.3% down on the same month last year - with a slump of 46.2% in China blamed on "import duty changes and continued trade tensions" holding back demand.

Sales fell 0.8% in the UK, 4.7% in Europe, and by 6.9% in North America.

Felix Brautigam, the carmaker's chief commercial officer, said: "As a business we are continuing to experience challenging conditions in some of our key markets."

JLR is Britain's biggest carmaker, employing 40,000 people.

Together with the wider industry, it has been facing a collapse in demand for diesel vehicles and has warned of uncertainty over Brexit.

The company, which is owned by India's Tata Motors, said: "Jaguar Land Rover is focused on achieving operational efficiencies and will align supply to reflect fluctuating demand globally as required.

"The decision to introduce a two week shutdown period later this month at Solihull is one example of actions we are taking to achieve this.

"Customer orders in the system will not be impacted and employees affected will be paid for the duration of the shutdown."

Howard Beckett, acting regional secretary of trade union Unite, said: "News of the shutdown will be deeply troubling for JLR workers and their colleagues in the supply chain.

"JLR is a powerhouse of the West Midlands economy and a source for decent, well-paid jobs."
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Interesting. Wonder how that will effect i-pace production as that is done at a contract manufacturer plant in Belgium?
Interesting. Wonder how that will effect i-pace production as that is done at a contract manufacturer plant in Belgium?
Looked up the production factory and it’s in Austria (at least that is what Google says) Hopefully no impact. ?
Magna Styer in Graz.

Interesting. A crisis in their ICE sales may force them to double down on electric.
Interesting. A crisis in their ICE sales may force them to double down on electric.
That would seem highly unlikely.
Interesting. Wonder how that will effect i-pace production as that is done at a contract manufacturer plant in Belgium?
Looked up the production factory and it’s in Austria (at least that is what Google says) Hopefully no impact. ?
They are built in Austria
Magna Styer in Graz.

Interesting. A crisis in their ICE sales may force them to double down on electric.
I don't really think they can double down any more than they have--can they? They announced over a year ago every new model announced from 2020 will have some form of electrified option--whether that is fully electric, plug-in hybrid or mild hybrid. The 2020 XJ will be announced by the end of this year--it will be a fully electric full-sized flagship sedan aimed squarely at the Model S--it will go on sale in mid-2019. My guess is cars due up for a mid-cycle refresh like the F-Pace will get plug-in hybrid options first in a year or two and then will be redesigned to be fully electric as they undergo full refreshes.
JLR screwed up putting a lot of time and money into developing all new igenium diesel engines--released them a solid year after the VW diesel scandal. I had a jetta TDI--loved that car and was a big diesel proponent, but its clear that is a dead technology and they wasted a lot of resources and time developing that IMO. Also, they initially only released the 2.0 diesel in the US--never understood what person is going to buy a jag with an 180hp engine with a 0-60 time of 9 seconds--that was dumb as **** IMO.
Magna Styer in Graz.

Interesting. A crisis in their ICE sales may force them to double down on electric.
They are already seriously considering turning Jaguar into an electric-only brand. (They were already considering producing a PHEV every model) The next XJ is going to be pure-electric.
I-Pace is now likely to be about 1/6th of 2019 Jaguar sales, globally.

I think they're likely to deeper in on electric than not.
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