Financial Times Reports

Jaguar Land Rover will shed hundreds of UK jobs as it relocates manufacturing of its Land Rover Discovery to Slovakia, in a reshuffle of factories that will also pave the way for the production of electric vehicles in Britain in future.

Britain’s biggest carmaker will invest hundreds of millions of pounds in retooling its Solihull plant to build the next Range Rover and Range Rover Sport cars at the site from around 2020, some of which will be electrically powered.

But the move will come at the cost of shifting work on its existing Land Rover Discovery sport utility vehicle to a newly opened plant in Slovakia, resulting in several hundred job losses among agency workers at the Solihull site. It comes on top of the 1,000 job losses the company announced in April, which also affected agency workers at the Solihull site.

The Slovakian site, which is fitted out to produce up to 150,000 vehicles, but with the capacity to expand to another 150,000 if needed, is JLR’s first major non-UK factory. It gives the manufacturer the opportunity to produce models at scale outside of its home country. The Slovakia site is also expected to produce the next generation of the Land Rover Defender.

JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, has previously warned about the potential impact of Britain’s departure from the EU on its manufacturing operations, which require access to Europe for components and exports. Industry analysts expect the business to push more work to Slovakia in future years to reduce its reliance on UK sites.

“How much they move there and what they move will depend on what form the Brexit deal takes,” said Ian Henry, an analyst from AutoAnalysis.

Production of the Discovery, one of Land Rover’s poorest selling models with only 46,500 shifted in the 12 months to March, was intended to be split between the UK’s Solihull site and JLR’s new Slovakia plant at Nitra.

Production of the Land Rover Discovery Sport, a smaller version of the SUV that uses different manufacturing tools from the Discovery and is JLR’s biggest model selling 120,000 cars a year, will remain in the UK.

As part of its shift announced on Monday, the company also committed to making the next generation of its Range Rover Evoque model — the group’s second biggest selling model — in the UK.

JLR said: “This significant investment and technology upgrade in Solihull in order to accommodate our next-generation of flagship Land Rover models, and the refit of our Halewood plant for the next Evoque, is proof that we remain committed both to the UK and to transformation and growth.

“The decision to move the Land Rover Discovery to Slovakia and the potential losses of some agency employed staff in the UK is a tough one but forms part of our long-term manufacturing strategy as we transform our business globally.” 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

I just posted a link to a BBC article about the same in Off Topics

They can shift production to Mars if they want, last Land Rover I will be buying

What a surprise ..... not . The first of many global companies who don’t buy into the UK’s brave new future out of the EU . Let’s see if they actually re-tool the UK facility in th long run . 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

I hate what they’ve done, but can’t blame them really. Why should they commit wholeheartedly to the UK in the current circumstances?

Welcome to the new reality.

Sad times. I love JLR to bits.

British Owned British Built was the old saying. Tata turned the brand around globally but at least it was still british built.

 MY14 Kahn Converted Dynamic - Fuji White Ebony/Pimento Interior
MY15 Xenon Headlight Conversion

MY17 RRS SVR - Estoril Blue Cirrus/Ebony 🪣💺’s

LR used to build vehicles in Spain, Egypt, Turkey. Now they are building in China, South America, Austria and Slovakia. They've always had an international arm. However in the past they never imported the foreign cars back to the UK. Ex AA Series III LWB Safari - Gone
300TDi Disco (bought new - terrible car) sent back after 18 months
Freelander 1 Estate - leased, given back at end of lease
200TDi Disco (bought from a mate with 100,000 on the clock) - Gone
Disco 2 TD5 - sold and exported to France
FR2 TD4 GS - Gone
FR2 SD4 HSE - Now changed for a DS
New model ex-demo Evoque S 180 in white
Unable to order a new DS, so gave up. Now have a Volvo S90 Recharge.

A copy of my earlier thoughts that I posted on the Off Topics / New Discovery stream.

Discovery to be made in Slovakia, and not UK!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44438846

Sorry if this has already been covered, but this is the first time that I have heard that ALL production of certain models is being moved out of the country.
Not sure, but I expect that this will become the norm with many other firms as we approach our 'cliff edge' Brexit.

"The company warned that there may be some job losses in the UK as a result."

Thanks Boris!
 FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Last edited by IanMetro on 12th Jun 2018 11:07 am. Edited 1 time in total

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/...s-Solihull

"In the short-term, more work than anticipated will move to JLR’s new £1bn facility in Nitra, Slovakia, which is due to open at the end of the year and is expected to build the revamped Land Rover Defender."


The Guardian is reporting that the New Defender will be built there as well. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Last edited by IanMetro on 12th Jun 2018 11:08 am. Edited 1 time in total

It’s only one model.

Was always going to happen, JLR has never made a secret of it, they always said production of one LR model would move to Slovakia.

The Jaguar E-Pace is already being built in Austria. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

This has nothing to do with brexit. It takes years of planning to build a new factory never mind building the thing . This has been on the cards for years .. brexit is an excuse. Do it now ! Your a long time dead !!

Spoken like a true Brexiteer!

Now please explain away why they’ve only just changed from moving SOME of D5 production to ALL of D5 production into the EU.

I can’t really blame LR, I’d have little choice but to do the same in their shoes.

Spocken like to true remoaner. If it’s so good to built in the EU why don’t LR mover the full production there? Do it now ! Your a long time dead !!

I think the reason they are moving all of the D5 production to Slovakia is already explained in the article

"Britain’s biggest car maker will invest hundreds of millions of pounds in retooling its Solihull plant to build the next Range Rover and Range Rover Sport cars at the site from around 2020, some of which will be electrically powered. "

The D5 is not the roaring success that JLR had hoped for so is the easiest model to move production to another factory. It will take a number of years to get the Solihull factory upgraded to be able to produce a new version of the Range Rover/Sport/EV so plans have to be put in place now. The factory in Slovakia also took years of planning and there was always going to be production there and this has been known for a long time.

PMB:

They’ve built a factory in Slovakia with a capacity of 150,000, with room to expand to 300,000. This has only scratched the surface of what can be built there, so expect other production to follow. We know that the Defender will be built there, with the only "Land Rover" remaining in the UK to be the Disco Sport. For now.

Expect them to start with the line that “only some of the production will move there” for any model line and then, later on, switch the whole lot. It seems to have worked well enough for them this time and it would seem that it's unlikely to be seen for what it is by up to 51.9% of UK voters.

Last edited by Tigger on 12th Jun 2018 9:12 am. Edited 1 time in total