Jaguar Land Rover cyberattack: Carmaker finally resumes vehicle production
Jaguar Land Rover has begun restarting its Range Rover production lines in Solihull, aiming to have all production sites fully operational by the end of next week following a major cyber attack that halted operations.
Workers returned to the Solihull site in the West Midlands on Thursday, following a phased restart of production on Wednesday. Operations were suspended for more than a month following the significant hack.
The remaining Solihull lines producing Range Rover Velar SUV and Jaguar F Pace models will resume next Monday. Vehicle production at Halewood, Merseyside, will also restart after this date.
The group confirmed that overseas factories in Pune, India and Brazil are also planning to mark the last sites to resume operations late next week.
JLR global manufacturing director Luis Vara said on Wednesday there was a “strong sense of unity and momentum” among production workers. Staff had been working from home since the firm’s systems were compromised on 31 August.
The cyberattack came at a particularly critical time for auto companies; Because September traditionally increases the demand for new vehicles with the publication of the latest license plates.
The incident also caused significant disruption to the firm’s global operations, with suppliers remaining uncertain due to a production freeze.
JLR on Monday revealed a sharp decline in sales in recent months following the cyber incident, adding that it had been a “challenging quarter” as it also grappled with the impact of higher US tariffs.
Sales fell by 17.1 per cent to 85,495 units between July and September compared to the same period last year, while sales in the UK fell by almost a third.
Wholesale sales volume decreased by 24.2% year on year to 66,165 units.
JLR said this partly reflected a production freeze since early September.
The group’s restart of production began on Wednesday with its engine factory in Wolverhampton and battery assembly center in Coleshill, Birmingham.
Also on Wednesday, Castle Bromwich resumed stamping operations at Halewood and Solihull on Merseyside, with key areas of the Solihull vehicle manufacturing facility including the body shop, paint shop and logistics operations centre.
This was followed by activities at the vehicle production facility in Nitra, Slovakia.
“There is a strong sense of unity and momentum as we get back to what we do best: producing quality luxury vehicles for our customers,” Mr. Vara said on Wednesday.
The firm has the largest supply chain in the UK automotive industry, employing around 120,000 people and comprising mostly small and medium-sized businesses.
The government recently announced it would provide JLR with a £1.5bn loan guarantee to give suppliers some certainty over payments and help shore up JLR’s cash reserves, but there have been calls for more to be done.
JLR said on Tuesday that the extended support package will enable suppliers to be paid up to 120 days earlier than normal payment terms.
It will start by qualifying JLR suppliers deemed critical to the restart of production, then expand to include some affected non-production suppliers.
JLR has also promised to refund the financing costs of JLR suppliers using the program during the restart phase.
A number of businesses have suffered major cyber attacks in recent months, including beer giant Asahi, high street retailer Marks & Spencer and nursery group Kido Schools.
