Jaguar Land Rover. Two wars it wasn't built to fight.
Britain's biggest car maker saw its profits drop by 99%. The things killing modern industry aren't the things it was built to fight.
THE GIST ON JAGUAR LAND ROVER: "Hard Drive"
Who is Jaguar Land Rover?
Britain's biggest car maker: Range Rovers, Defenders and Jaguars. It has 30,000 UK employees, two plants in the Midlands and over a century of history. It's been nationalised, sold to Ford, sold to Tata, and survived every shock British industry has faced in living memory. Until last year.
What hit it?
First, US tariffs: Range Rovers and Defenders sell mostly into America. Second, last year's cyber attack, which alone cost the UK economy 2 billion pounds.
JLR's profits dropped from 2.5 billion pounds to 14 million. Revenue was down 21%, and 2.2 billion in cash was gone.
What did it cost in momentum?
It lost a year at exactly the point it decided to pivot to electric. The electric Range Rover was meant to launch last year and has been pushed to the second half of this one. The new electric Jaguar is still a concept.
Why were they not ready?
JLR was built to fight one kind of war: cost, recession and regulation. And it did it well. But tariffs and hackers wouldn't have looked like credible risks to the people who built the company. The world keeps inventing new categories of attack faster than institutions can prepare for them.
Should the state back major employers hit by crises?
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Quick answers
How far did JLR's profits fall?
From 2.5 billion pounds to 14 million, with revenue down 21%.
What were the two shocks?
US tariffs, and the cyber attack, which alone cost the UK economy 2 billion pounds.
What is delayed?
The electric Range Rover has slipped to the second half of this year, and the new electric Jaguar is still a concept.
See you on the next one.
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