Jaguar to cut production with 1000 job losses

Britain’s largest carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover is to shed 1, 000 temporary contract workers at its Solihull plant which also builds Range Rovers and the Land Rovers Discovery SUV and cut production, resulting from a collapse in diesel vehicle sales. Jaguar also blames lower consumer confidence because of the prospect of withdrawal from the EU, UK and European sales,  which fell 26 per cent and 16  per cent respectively in March.  The output will be cut at JLR factories in Solihull, Castle Bromwich which produces the Jaguar F-Type, XE, XF and SJ models and Halewood plant near Liverpool which produces the Range Rover Evoque and the Discovery Sport.  There were about 1million engines and 725,000 diesel cars made in Britain last year, and as the sales of diesel fell in Britain a third in first three months of the year, by the threat of heavier taxes on the fuel and confusion over if the government plans to ban its use in new vehicles beyond 2040.

“ We are, however, continuing to recruit large numbers of highly skilled engineer, graduates and apprentices as we invest in new products and technologies and remain committed to UK plants in which it has already spent more than £ 4 billion since 2010”, a spokesperson for the group owned by India’s Tata Motors, also has manufacturing sites in China, Brazil, Slovakia and India. The British government which for years endorsed the technology as a way of reducing CO2 emissions has warned customers of the fuel and introduced an array of taxes designed to penalise diesel drivers.