JLR posts £451m quarterly loss as 4,000 job cuts weigh on results

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has reported a loss of £451m for the quarter from July to September, after taking the cost of cutting 4,000 jobs. Revenues rose to £5.9bn over the period.

The company booked £530m in costs related to the job cuts, which were announced near the end of the quarter. JLR said it had just about made a profit from its operations when the restructuring costs were excluded. Falling sales in China and the Middle East weighed on the result.

JLR, Britain's largest automotive employer, expects the vast majority of the 4,000 job losses to come through voluntary redundancy. So far 3,000 have been confirmed, and most of those employees will leave at the end of November.

Chief executive PB Balaji said the "onslaught of competition" from China meant the UK and EU should drop plans for new post-Brexit trade barriers on each other.

The car industry is lobbying both sides to delay the introduction of "rules of origin" on 1 January. These threaten 10% tariffs on UK-EU electric cars that use batteries from Asia. The EU is also considering "made in Europe" rules that would exclude UK-made cars from subsidies.

Balaji said: "We just need time to ensure all these plans start coming into fruition."

JLR, owned by India's Tata, wrote off billions of pounds of investment in China in 2019 after a wave of Chinese carmakers created heavy overcapacity there. It is now targeting growth in the US, where it is in the process of agreeing a deal for Stellantis, owner of Chrysler, to build Land Rovers for the first time. The company was also hit by a damaging hack last year.

JLR has begun producing electric Land Rovers, starting with the flagship Range Rover, which is built in Solihull in the West Midlands. Electric versions of the Range Rover Sport, Defender and Defender Sport will follow. It also makes the luxury electric Jaguar Type 01, and Balaji said a new version of the Discovery is in development.