Automotive News – Late July 2025
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Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has delayed the planned launches of its electric Range Rover and Jaguar models according to a report from the Guardian. The delay is reportedly so that the company can have more time for testing and can garner an increase in demand.
Customers who have been waiting for the Range Rover Electric model have received letters from JLR informing them that deliveries won’t start until 2026. These were initially expected from late-2025.
Luxury car maker, Jaguar Land Rover, is reportedly axing 500 management jobs.
The group, which has manufacturing plants in Halewood, Merseyside, and at Castle Bromwich and Solihull in the West Midlands. said it is aiming to achieve the redundancies through voluntary means. The car maker says the job losses will affect no more than 1.5% of its British workforce.
A spokesperson for JLR told TheBusinessDesk.com: “As part of normal business practice, we regularly offer eligible employees the opportunity to leave JLR through limited voluntary redundancy programmes. Through this limited UK VR programme for managers, JLR is aligning its leadership workforce for the business’s current and future needs.”
The car company behind the brands Vauxhall, Jeep and Fiat says US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have already cost it €300m (£259.6m, $349.2m).
Stellantis said the financial hit was a result of tariffs impacting trade and the company’s loss of planned production in its response to them. A 25% tariff on cars being imported to the US has been place since April.
Trump’s policy decision has threatened to upend global car trade and supply chains, with some car manufacturers, including Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) temporarily pausing exports to the US in response.
British car and van production in the first half of this year has hit its lowest level since 1953, excluding the industry shutdown during Covid.
Car output fell 7.3% in the six months to June while the closure of Vauxhall’s Luton van plant helped drive van production down 45%, data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) shows.
Uncertainty over tariffs in the US – the UK industry’s second biggest market – meant some firms slowed or stopped production in the first half of this year.
Greener journeys, skilled jobs and stronger UK manufacturing were all on the agenda today (28 July 2025), as government ministers and metro mayors came together in Westminster to commit to greener transport and greater job opportunities across the regions.
The fifth meeting of the UK Bus Manufacturing Expert Panel was chaired by the Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, and Local Transport Minister Simon Lightwood, with wider attendance from mayors including David Skaith (York and North Yorkshire), Richard Parker (West Midlands), and Steve Rotheram (Liverpool), alongside Scotland Office Minister Kirsty McNeill and the Scottish Government’s Transport Minister, Fiona Hyslop.
The session focussed on the future pipeline of zero-emission bus orders, in order to give UK manufacturers the long-term certainty needed to invest and grow. h
Aston Martin is continuing to lobby the UK Government to “ensure fair access” to the American market for UK automotive manufacturers after tariffs and quotas disrupted its plans. The luxury car maker is concerned about getting caught up in heavy traffic as UK manufacturers race to get better access to the US’s two-tier tariffs.
The US brought in a quota mechanism for UK automotive manufacturers at the end of June, having only published details of its plans a week earlier. It set a tariff of 10% for up to 100,000 UK vehicles being imported into the US in a calendar year, rising to 27.5% for additional volumes. The quota is based on a “first come, first served” basis and will mean 25,000 UK-made vehicles will qualify for the lower tariff rate each quarter. https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/westmidlands/news/2100590-aston-martin-in-race-to-beat-punitive-us-tariffs?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WestMidlands_30th_Jul_2025_Daily
