Jaguar Land Rover cuts 1,000 jobs amid Brexit, falling sales

http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/16/news...ing/index.html

https://news.sky.com/story/car-maker...to-go-11333589

 

It's contract staff not having contracts renewed, but still a bad sign. Most reports prominently mention fears related to Brexit.

EDIT: I see that they are also shifting people from Castle Bromwich to the site where the reductions took place :-(

 

Because of domestic demand in UK?

 

It's 99% due to the huge downturn in diesel sales, IIRC down 37% compared to last year.
90% (yes 90%!) of JLR sales in UK and Europe are diesels. At least they were, that percentage is dropping like a stone.
All because the idiotic Gummint changed their mind and policies about diesel vs gasoline, 10 years ago gasoline was demonised in the UK and Europe and diesel was promoted (via the fuel and car tax systems) due to the eeeeevil CO2, but now there is a huge scare going on about the pollution caused by diesel particulates (soot) so gasoline is now the good guy and diesel the bad guy and the tax regimes have reversed.

 

Can't say that massive cheating on diesel emissions wasn't part of that change of mind. It's mentioned prominently. The articles also note domestic inflation and consumer's reluctance to make large capital purchases based on uncertainty, and worries about cost of sourcing parts from other markets once free trade disappears.

 

As ozXFR stated a surprisingly high proportion (90%) of Jaguar sales were diesel powered.

Years ago in the UK encouragement was given to domestic car market to move to diesel, the big focus at the time was reduced CO2 emissions and even with rhe fudge of emissions taken into account diesels are typically lower in CO2 emissions. Also diesel engines tend to more miles per gallon ,(lower fuel consumption) and diesel in UK used to be cheaper per gallon than petrol (gasoline)

Since then diesel costs more at the pump than petrol ,(due to tax), perhaps more importantly whatever anyone's opinions about CO2 emissions and the desire to prevent increased emissions the simple fact is CO2 isn't toxic or carcinogenic, unlike some other emissions that diesels don't compare well to petrol engines such as Nox (Nitrogen oxides) and especially microscopic particulates which are known to be particularly harmful to human health when inhaled. (become embedded into lungs and carcinogenic)

As a consequence of this it's suspected that UK tax changes may be introduced to incentivise car owners to replace diesel engined vehicles with alternatives on the domestic market and possibly export markets could be affected in a similar manner.
.Additionally as stated by OzXFR concerns about trading and tarrif costs that may be increased after UK leaves EU are causing uncertainty about future sales demand

 

I would not be surprised to see JLR at some point when the Brexit terms are settled, decide to shift most Land Rover production to a Eurozone country.

I'm not sure Mrs May and her ministers for negotiating the terms for the UK's EU exit are up to the task at hand within the given time frame. If the customs union is not continued, it may prove disastrous for British exports.