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Jaguar Land Rover Cuts UK Jobs, Moves Discovery Production to Slovakia

Confirmed since December 2015, Jaguar Land Rover will start production at its new plant in Nitra, Slovakia towards the end of the year. 1,400 people are already employed in Nitra as the automaker gears up to build the Discovery in Slovakia.
2018 Land Rover Discovery SVX 19 photos
Photo: Land Rover
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As the headline implies, the automaker’s operations in the United Kingdom will be affected by this decision (up to 1,000 jobs will be lost at the Solihull and Halewood plants). “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.” As simply put as possible, money talks and that’s the gist of it.

According to chief financial officer Ken Gregor, moving production away from the United Kingdom saves “thousands of pounds” off the cost of every vehicle produced. While that doesn’t sound bad at all from a financial standpoint, it’s a bit of a shame so many workers have to leave the company as a result of this decision.

At the present moment, Land Rover and Jaguar “employ more than 43,000 people globally and support around 240,000 more through our dealerships, suppliers and local businesses.” In addition to the United Kingdom and Slovakia, the Tata Motors-owned automaker also relies on Brazil-, China-, and Austria-built vehicles.

Regarding the Halewood and Solihull assembly plants, significant investments towards technological upgrades are in the pipeline. Halewood will be the home of the second-gen Evoque while Solihull is where the full-size Range Rover is made.

Looking at the future, Jaguar Land Rover said in January 2018 that it would decide by year’s end whether to manufacture electric vehicles in the United Kingdom or soldier on with a heterogeneous lineup. Speaking of which, Jaguar Land Rover considers expanding production by means of a new plant in the United States.

But on the other hand, such an investment isn't viable right now because Jaguar and Land Over doesn’t sell too well in this part of the world. The best-selling nameplate of the group in the U.S. in 2017 is the Range Rover Sport, moving 19,153 examples in the previous year.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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