JLR chief urges UK and EU to delay post-Brexit car tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover’s £451m loss for the quarter ending in September is dominated by the cost of the job cuts the company announced near the end of that period. Britain’s largest automotive employer recorded £530m in restructuring costs, on revenues that rose to £5.9bn between July and September. Excluding those costs, the company said it had scraped into profit from its operations, though it was hurt by falling sales in China and the Middle East.

JLR said it expected the vast majority of the 4,000 job cuts to be achieved via voluntary redundancies, with 3,000 already confirmed. Most of those people will leave at the end of November.

The results land as many European carmakers struggle with competition from Chinese rivals while simultaneously investing in electric car production. The company, which is owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata, previously sought to target China for growth, only to write off billions in investments in 2019 as a new wave of Chinese carmakers led to massive overcapacity in the country.

Balaji said on Friday that the “onslaught of competition” from China meant the UK and EU should stop plans for new post-Brexit trade barriers on each other. The automotive industry is lobbying the UK and EU intensely to delay the implementation of “rules of origin” on 1 January, which threaten to impose 10% tariffs on UK-EU electric cars that use batteries from Asia. The EU is also considering “made in Europe” rules that would lock UK-made cars out of subsidies.

“Now is the time for actually fostering this entire electrical ecosystem,” Balaji said. “It’s so important for us that we all hold hands, stick together and ensure that we get the system to evolve into the world of electrics.” He added: “We just need time to ensure all these plans start coming into fruition.”

JLR, which was last year hit by a devastating hack, is targeting growth in the US, where it is in the process of agreeing a deal for the Chrysler owner, Stellantis, to manufacture Land Rovers for the first time.

The company has started to produce electric Land Rovers, beginning with its flagship Range Rover, built in Solihull in the West Midlands. Electric versions of its cheaper, higher-selling Range Rover Sport, Defender and Defender Sport will follow. JLR also produces the luxury electric Jaguar Type 01, and Balaji said JLR was working on a new version of the Discovery.