Hundreds of jobs at risk as Jaguar Land Rover moves Discovery production to Slovakia

British carmaker says it needs to free up
space at UK plant to build ‘next generation’ models

One-Minute Read

The British car manufacturer is expected to shift Discovery
production from the Solihull factory to its newly built
plant in the Slovakian city of Nitra by early next year,
reports The Independent. 

Company insiders told the news site that workers had not been
informed about the potential jobs cuts before the move to Eastern
Europe was announced. 

A JLR spokesperson said today that the decision to
relocate, with “potential losses of some agency-employed staff”,
had been “a tough one”, but that the move was necessary to make
room for building the “next generation of flagship Land Rover
models”.

These models will include a possible “family of electrified and
electric” cars, including the upcoming Jaguar XJ saloon and
Range Rover EV, according to Autocar. 

The carmaker is believed to be investing hundreds of
millions in the Solihull facility to accommodate the new cars, the
magazine adds.

News of the latest job cuts comes just months after the company,
owned by Indian vehicle giant Tata, axed 1,000 roles at its Castle Bromwich
and Solihull factories, amid poor sales figures blamed on the
uncertainty around Brexit and the future of diesel cars.

The manufacturing shake-up should benefit JLR in the long-term,
by enabling the firm to produce cleaner electric vehicles.

Professor of industrial strategy David Bailey, from the
University of Aston, told The Guardian: “If this move on the Discovery
means producing electric cars here, overall that is a good
thing.”

“JLR have been too slow in getting into hybrids and they
have to speed up in getting fully into electric vehicles”, he
added.