Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is to cut 4,000 jobs as the carmaker struggles with Chinese competition, US tariffs, and the transition to electric vehicles.
The cuts will happen over the next two years and will mostly affect the head office, which is based in the UK.
JLR’s long-term issues were made worse after a cyber-attack last year caused the firm, which employs 43,000 people globally, to shut down production for more than a month.
Chief executive PB Balaji said the firm was “committed to supporting everyone with care, fairness and respect” through the redundancy process.
JLR is hoping to achieve the cuts through voluntary redundancy, with a window open until 4 October, but said it would make compulsory redundancies with less generous terms if necessary.
Affected staff will receive an email in the coming days.
The company is making the redundancies in an attempt to save £1.7bn over the next two years.
The carmaker has been losing sales to rivals from China, a country which JLR initially saw as a market for growth rather than a source of competition.
In addition, US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have hurt the company, which unlike many of its rivals does not have a factory in the US.
Ian Robertson, former director at BMW, told the BBC’s Today programme that JLR should have copied its rivals and started manufacturing in the US.
“The biggest operation for BMW in the world is in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Mercedes have their plant further south in Tuscaloosa. JLR didn’t take that decision early enough in my view,” he said.
He also said JLR had been “somewhat late to the party in terms of producing their first electric car which is just about to go into production”.
Robertson added that Brexit had hurt the firm, despite its factory in Slovakia giving it “some flexibility”.
Chief Treasury Secretary Emma Reynolds told the BBC’s Today programme: “My thoughts are with the workforce.
“The business secretary is working closely both with the leadership of the company but also with the relevant trade unions,” she added.
At the weekend, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he would be meeting JLR bosses this week to “mitigate any job losses”, but he ruled out a bailout for the company.
