JLR factories to reduce production amid global chip shortages

Jaguar Land Rover is set to cut production due to a continued global shortage of semiconductors.

The Guardian has reported that JLR will drop production rates at its factories in Solihull and Castle Bromwich in the West Midlands and Halewood in Merseyside, between January and April in an effort to prioritise profitable models.

In its quarterly report on November 9th, JLR reported high demand for products despite ongoing chip constraints.

The total order book now stood at 205,000 units, up around 5,000 orders from June 30, 2022, with the three most profitable and desired models, the New Range Rover, New Range Rover Sport and Defender, accounting for more than 70% of the order book.

Jaguar Land Rover said it is continuing to focus on signing long-term partnership agreements with chip suppliers, which is improving the visibility of future chip supply.

The Guardian now says that the Solihull factory will move to one shift in parts that produce the Range Rover Velar and Jaguar F-Pace but will add an extra shift in parts that produce body panels for the Range Rover.

The Halewood factory which produces the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque will also move from two shifts to one

The chief executive of JLR resigned on November 16th, saying that “personal reasons” are behind the decision.

Thierry Bolloré is set to be replaced by JLR finance boss Adrian Mardell who will take the role on an interim basis, according to parent company Tata Motors.

Bolloré said at the start of November that JLR “expect to continue to improve our performance in the second half of the year, as new agreements with semiconductor partners take effect, enabling us to build and deliver more vehicles to our clients.”

Last week the luxury carmaker announced it is set to embark on a recruitment drive to fill 800 hi-tech vacancies across the group.

It said it is targeting displaced workers from sector leaders such as Facebook and Twitter where thousands of employees are facing redundancies.

Available roles span Autonomous Driving, Artificial Intelligence, Electrification, Cloud Software, Data Science, Machine Learning and more, as the company becomes a digital-first and data-driven organisation.

The group said these skills are essential to developing, building and repairing Jaguar Land Rover’s next generation of cars that, it says, will epitomise beauty and modern luxury, while delivering for clients a fully connected experience.

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