JLR has extended its vehicle production pause by another week, as it continues to grapple with the impact of a cyber attack earlier this month, and now plans to start building cars again on 1 October.
The company had planned to restart production at its UK and Slovakia factories tomorrow (24 September) but has delayed the restart as part of a plan to resume operations "in a safe and secure manner".
The move means the company will lose a full month of vehicle production, having not produced any vehicles since shutting down all its global systems in response to the attack on 1 September. The impact on volumes will be made clear when the company releases its production numbers for the quarter, but in the three months to the end of September last year, JLR produced more than 80,000 Land Rover and Range Rover cars.
In a statement sent to Autocar, a JLR spokesperson said: "Today we have informed colleagues, suppliers and partners that we have extended the current pause in production until Wednesday 1 October 2025, following the cyber incident.
"We have made this decision to give clarity for the coming week as we build the timeline for the phased restart of our operations and continue our investigation.
"Our teams continue to work around the clock alongside cybersecurity specialists, the NCSC and law enforcement to ensure we restart in a safe and secure manner.
"Our focus remains on supporting our customers, suppliers, colleagues, and our retailers who remain open. We fully recognise this is a difficult time for all connected with JLR and we thank everyone for their continued support and patience."
The delay comes after the UK government stepped in to help the car maker resume operations following the incident.
A statement from UK trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) last week confirmed the government was helping the effort, as JLR continues to rebuild the internal computer systems that were infiltrated.
As well as aiding moves to restart production, government cyber experts were helping to assess “any impacts on the supply chain”, which workers’ union Unite claimed on Wednesday was at the brink of collapsing.
The SMMT statement said: "The recent cyber incident is having a significant impact on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and on the wider automotive supply chain.
"The government, including government cyber experts, are in contact with the company to support the task of restoring production operations, and are working closely with JLR to understand any impacts on the supply chain.”
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Not mentioned in the Autocar article but from another news source:
In September 2023, JLR outsourced its IT and digital services to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), also a Tata-owned company, intended, it said, to "transform, simplify, and help manage its digital estate...
They say transform, simplify and help manage, but we all know it was cost cutting.
Put all your eggs in the one basket and... It's not rocket science.
This is also exacerbated when you offshore computing it skills to places like India as Aldi Uk are doing making hundreds of I.T.it guys redundant in Accounting ,Buying and other departments ,think it is about 500 they should be made to pay duty for importing outsorced services .
Why do we the taxpayer have to bail out JLR. They make billions a year! They should pay out their staff and suppliers! Since the suppliers work for them! In fact majority of the suppliers are owned by JLR!
The suppliers to JLR dont though and many many jobs are at risk, the government have not exactly 'bailed' them out they are just providing support through restarting the business and investigating the issue.
Bigger issue is how much tax Reeves has stolen from all of the employees the government should be supporting them!
*a point of note, your comment about the majority of suppliers being owned by JLR is completely false. I can't think of a single one other than their own engine plant, which is owned. Some are heavily reliant on JLR business, too reliant, but that doesn't imply ownership...
You're dreaming! If I remember correctly, JLR paid tax on a £2 billion profit last year (thereabouts). The REAL major contributors are the likes of HSBC and Shell (£43.5 billion). The top 10 companies have revenues (not profits) of over £1.2 TRILLION.
JLR aren't even in the top 123 companies! Not only that, thousands of UK companies have supply chains, and indirectly employ millions of people, thus indirectly contributing to the UK tax revenue. JLR just has 'some' suppliers, and some of them are from overseas.