Jaguar Land Rover is going to cut some 500 jobs (about 10%) at its Halewood plant near Liverpool in the UK, as the facility will now work on two shifts (instead of three shifts) with an option for an extension of some workdays if demand is high.
According to Bloomberg, the reason for that is a necessity to “to cut costs amid mounting spending on electric cars”. On the other hand, Tata Motors (JLR parent company) explains that “This is about efficiency, not loss of volume.”
The Halewood plant produces the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque models.
Jaguar Land Rover is clearly in a process of deep changes. Land Rover Discovery production was moved from Solihull in Birmingham, UK to Slovakia, which was connected to 1,200 jobs.
According to the company’s presentation, the lineup currently consists of 14 models, including one stand-alone BEV and two PHEV options (Range Rover/Range Rover Sport).
Soon, Jaguar will introduce an all-new all-electric XJ and we can guess that more PHEVs also will be introduced in 2020-2024:
Jaguar Land Rover is using three electrified solutions:
- mild hybrid
- plug-in hybrid
- all-electric
Thanks to the partnership with BMW, the new models might be equipped with BMW’s drive units to limit development costs.
Source: Bloomberg, Tata/Jaguar Land Rover