Jaguar Land Rover to cut UK car production in the coming months amid Brexit fears

Jaguar Land Rover is to slash production amid Brexit fears and a government crackdown on diesel cars.

There will be a reduction in the number of cars rolling off the ramps at JLR’s Halewood plant situated close to Liverpool.

JLR said today “temporary adjustments” to production schedules would commence in the second quarter of 2018.

Halewood is one of Tata-owned JLR’s three UK plants. The vehicle manufacturer, Britain’s biggest, will be particularly affected by government plans to hike vehicle excise duty on diesel cars in April – the fuel type 90 per cent of its vehicles are powered by.

“Ongoing uncertainty surrounding Brexit is being felt by customers at home and in Europe,” the company said, according to Reuters.

“Concern around the future of petrol and diesel engines – and general global economic and political uncertainty – and it’s clear to see why the industry is seeing an impact on car sales.”

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Liberal Democrat Lords business spokesperson Baroness Lorely Burt said it was “sad” JLR was cutting production “as a result of the repercussions of the Brexit vote”.

“Though we don’t know yet things are going to be resolved with regard to the deal with Europe, we do know that continuing uncertainty is greatly damaging business… The harsher the Brexit, the worse it will be for British industry and Britain generally,” she said.

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