JLR has announced it will cut up to 500 jobs in the UK as it grapples with declining sales following the imposition of new vehicle import tariffs in the US.
The company said it will offer roughly 1.5% of its workforce a voluntary redundancy package and it does not expect more than 500 workers to leave the business.
The impacted roles are managerial positions, but JLR has not said which specific departments will be affected, nor which of its UK facilities. The company's main UK sites include its car factories in Solihull and Halewood, the engine production facility in Wolverhampton, its headquarters in Gaydon, the Whitley engineering centre and its panel pressing facility at the ex-Jaguar factory in Castle Bromwich.
An official statement sent to Autocar said: “JLR regularly offers eligible employees voluntary redundancy [VR] programmes. Through this limited UK VR programme for managers, JLR is aligning its leadership workforce for the business’s current and future needs.
“We are grateful to the Government for delivering at speed the new UK-US trade deal, which gives us the confidence to invest £3.5bn per annum to realise our strategy which is delivering.”
The news comes following a sharp 10.7% yearly drop in sales last quarter, which JLR partly attributed to a reduction in US sales, after president Donald Trump imposed substantial 25% import tariffs on all EU- and UK-built cars being shipped to the US - one of JLR's biggest global markets.
Immediately after the tariffs were implemented, JLR paused all vehicle shipments to the US but has since restarted deliveries to American dealers.
The UK has recently negotiated a lower, 10% tariff rate on its US-bound cars (up to 100,000 units per year) which will come as a boon to JLR, which makes all Range Rover models and the Discovery Sport in the UK, but the Defender – which is one of its best-performing US models – is built in Slovakia and so still subject to the 25% levy.
Another factor in the volume drop is that JLR is currently not building any Jaguar cars as it gears up for the marque's relaunch as an EV-only luxury brand in 2026. As a result, Jaguar deliveries were down 85% last quarter from more than 15,000 units to just over 2000 cars from stock.
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