Jaguar Land Rover To Shed Thousands Of Jobs To Cut Spending As Challenges Mount

Jaguar Land Rover will offer voluntary redundancies up to 4,000 employees over the next two years, according to a new report.

British outlet The Times noted that the decision is a result of multi-pronged pressures, including competitions from Chinese manufacturers, a cyberattack and tariffs imposed by the Donald Trump administration.

The company said it needs to adapt to evolving market conditions, and to that end it will seek to save about £1.7 billion ($2.3 billion). The goal is to reduce the break-even point to 300,000 vehicles.

"To achieve this, we must further simplify our organisation, improve efficiency, and build greater resilience," a spokesperson told the outlet.

Jaguar Land Rover, owned by Indian Tata Motors, is not the only automaker facing difficulties. Volkswagen announced last week that it will shed tens of thousands more jobs as part of a massive restructuring plan.

The company said last Thursday that the supervisory board approved the Future Plan 2030, which will amount to its "most strategically profound transformation program."

The decision includes 50,000 more layoffs than those previously announced, taking the total to 100,000. The plan also involves shedding managerial roles.

"We are taking responsibility for our entire workforce, for our partners and for industrial jobs worldwide," company CEO Oliver Blume said following the decision. "Over the coming years, we will invest a three-figure billion sum to make our iconic brands even more attractive, stronger and more competitive."

He went on to address tariffs on vehicles from Europe have increased from 2.5% to 15%, making cars "more expensive and therefore increasingly difficult to sell – not because they have got worse, but because the rules of the game have changed."

Blume had also said previously that labor costs in Germany "are more than double those of comparable European locations."

"And when it comes to ​factory costs, other plants are still significantly cheaper. ​This is not a criticism, it is the reality against ‌which ⁠we must measure ourselves," he added.

Earlier in August, the company's controlling family shareholders had delivered their strongest public endorsement yet of a sweeping restructuring plan, urging management to move faster as Europe's largest automaker battles rising competition from Chinese manufacturers, higher tariff costs and weakening profitability.

The comments came from Porsche SE, Volkswagen's largest shareholder through the Porsche and Piëch families. Volkswagen has already confirmed it is evaluating plans to eliminate up to 100,000 jobs, double the number that had been previously discussed, as part of an effort to restore competitiveness after a sharp earnings decline.