JLR sales up 11.9% in April

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) today reported 11.9 per cent rise in retail sales at 45,180 units in April 2018.

Sales were driven by introduction of new models including the Range Rover Velar, Land Rover Discovery and Jaguar E-Pace, the company said in a statement.

Retail sales for April were up significantly year-on-year in China (28.9 per cent), the UK (25.9 per cent), overseas markets (21.3 per cent) and North America (2.5 per cent) but down in Europe (10.2 per cent), with continuing uncertainty over diesel in the UK and Europe.

While Jaguar's retail sales last month were up 8 per cent to 13,289 units, Land Rover retailed 31,891 units, up 13.6 per cent compared to April 2017.

Meanwhile, it was reported that Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover is planning to cut jobs as it scales back production at some of its UK sites amid what it termed as "headwinds" impacting the automotive industry.

While Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is yet to confirm the exact number of jobs to be lost, some reports indicate that around 1,000 temporary workers are likely to be hit.

The luxury carmaker said the "review" of its production schedules is being undertaken to ensure market demand is balanced globally and that it will lay out its 2018-19 production plans to the workforce on Monday.

"In light of the continuing headwinds impacting the car industry, we are making some adjustments to our production schedules and the level of agency staff," a JLR statement said.

"We are however continuing to recruit large numbers of highly skilled engineers, graduates and apprentices as we over-proportionally invest in new products and technologies, it added.

The company stressed it remains committed to its UK plants, having invested more than 4 billion pounds since 2010 to future-proof manufacturing technologies to deliver new models.

Solihull and the nearby Castle Bromwich site are expected to be hit by production cuts. There are 3,200 people employed at the Castle Bromwich site and a further 10,000 at Solihull.

The job cuts are expected largely at Solihull in the West Midlands region of England, with mostly agency staff not having their contracts renewed. JLR employs around 40,000 people across six sites in the UK.

Earlier this year, Britain's largest car manufacturer had announced plans to cut production at its Halewood plant in Merseyside and pointed to "uncertainty" around the Brexit vote as well as the future of diesel vehicles as the main factors behind the "temporary adjustments".