Jaguar Land Rover is culling up to 500 UK management jobs as the carmaker scrambles to offset damage from tumbling sales and bruising US tariffs.
The cuts, framed as a voluntary redundancy programme, amount to around 1.5% of JLR’s British workforce. The company insists it’s “normal business practice”, but the timing says otherwise.
Sales in the latest quarter nosedived after JLR halted shipments to the US, its most lucrative market, thanks to a Trump-era tariff hike. Exports were paused after Washington slapped a 25% levy on British cars, which was later trimmed to 10% under a fresh UK-US trade deal. Even so, that’s quadruple the previous rate, and a hard pill to swallow for any manufacturer.
The company is also phasing out ageing Jaguar models, adding to the sales slump. Latest figures showed a 15% plunge in quarterly sales to just over 94,000 vehicles.
Despite the cutbacks, JLR claims the revised trade terms allow it to keep investing £3.5 billion a year. But not everyone is convinced. Auto industry experts point out that the tariffs remain steep, especially on popular models like the Defender, which is built in Slovakia and still faces a punishing 27.5% rate.
Downing Street attempted damage control, rejecting any link to political failures and saying the JLR deal means “jobs saved, not job done”.
JLR, part of India’s Tata Motors, employs over 30,000 people in the UK, building vehicles like the Range Rover at sites including Solihull and Halewood. This latest cull won’t touch the factory floor, but it’s a stark reminder of how volatile global trade remains.