Jaguar Land Rover to resume production next month

Jaguar Land Rover has announced plans to gradually resume production at three of its factories from May 18.

The firm says its Solihull plant in the UK, as well as those in Austria and Slovakia, will be the first to reopen, with other locations due to restart once local pandemic-related restrictions are eased.

In a statement, JLR said: “As countries are relaxing distancing guidelines and retailers are reopening around the world, the restart of production at our other plants will be confirmed in due course.

“The health and wellbeing of our employees is our first priority. We are developing robust protocol and guidelines to support a safe return to work. We will adopt strict social distancing measures across our business and are currently evaluating a number of different measures to ensure we protect and reassure our workforce when they begin to return to work.

“We continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation and follow the guidance of all relevant authorities in the markets in which we operate.

“Jaguar Land Rover is doing whatever it can to support its communities through the current situation. The company’s thoughts are with those directly affected by COVID-19 and with the healthcare professionals, whose role in combating this virus is appreciated by all.”

JLR added that in China, it is beginning to see recovery in vehicle sales and customers are returning to its showrooms.

Its joint venture plant in Changshu has been in operation since the middle of February.

Earlier this month, the company reported that car sales had dropped by 12% as the coronavirus pandemic hit it hard in its fourth quarter.

The firm sold 508,659 vehicles over the year. Its fourth quarter sales were down almost 31% at just 109,869.

Meanwhile, the manufacturing giant revealed it had furloughed 20,000 staff – half its UK workforce.