Jaguar Land Rover to suspend work at UK plants over chip shortage

Jaguar Land Rover announced a temporary halt in production at Halewood and Castle Bromwich due to the global shortage of computer chips.

The "limited period" of non-production was set to last for at least a week starting from 26 April. The company also said that it would need to assess supplies and that it was unclear when production would return to normal.

To take note of, the same shortage was continuing to affect car companies and the technology sector worldwide.

The Jaguar XE and XF executive cars were among the models affected, alongside the F-Type sports car and the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque.

A spokeswoman for the company said: “Like other automotive manufacturers, we are currently experiencing some Covid-19 supply chain disruption, including the global availability of semiconductors, which is having an impact on our production schedules and our ability to meet global demand for some of our vehicles.

“We are working closely with affected suppliers to resolve the issues and minimise the impact on customer orders wherever possible.”

Jaguar Land Rover was not the only carmaker with production problems. On Wednesday, French carmaker Renault said it too was struggling to find supplies and warned disruptions could continue for months over the summer.

Honda, which was closing its Swindon plant, was also among UK manufacturers blaming the shortage of parts for production delays.