Jaguar Land Rover to slash 500 UK jobs months after controversial ‘woke’ rebrand
Jaguar Land Rover has announced that it will be axing 500 jobs from its UK operations just months after it unveiled a controversial new brand design.
In a statement on Thursday morning, the manufacturer said it would be slashing 500 managerial jobs.
The jobs, which will be cut through offered voluntary redundancies, will not exceed 1.5 per cent of its British workforce.
In a statement, Jaguar Land Rover said the decision to cut jobs was part of a “normal business practice”.
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Jaguar Land Rover to slash 500 UK jobs months after controversial ‘woke’ rebrand
A spokesperson for JLR said: “As part of normal business practice, we regularly offer eligible employees the opportunity to leave JLR through limited voluntary redundancy programmes.”
The Tata-owned company has been hit particularly hard by President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the import of foreign-made cars and vehicle parts.
Reports last week stated that JLR’s retail sales dropped 15.1 per cent in the three months to June after a temporary pause in exports to the US.
It also coincides with the brand winding down the release of older models as it moves forward with its new design strategy.
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Jaguar Land Rover was particularly impacted by US President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs
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Jaguar said it would be introducing a voluntary redundancy programme
While the departure from the classic Jaguar logo and branding was met with praise for developing the brand’s image around the world, it was also viewed as a controversial U-turn from what made it successful.
Leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, said the rebrand was “woke” and warned that the historic British manufacturer would “go bust” for its choice.
In response to news that Jaguar had ditched its advertising agency, the MP for Clacton later posted on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: “I did try to warn you Jaguar.”
Rawdon Glover, managing director of JLR, said the response to the rebrand was “vile”, but added that the manufacturer was happy with the direction it was taking and would be relaunching as an electric-only brand from 2026 onwards.
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The new Jaguar Type 00 is expected to be released in 2026
The latest data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reports that Jaguar has sold 1,725 vehicles in the first six months of the year, representing 0.17 per cent of the market.
This is a staggering 83.7 per cent drop compared to the same time last year, when it sold 10,626 vehicles.
Jaguar said this was a result of it changing its strategy and selling through stock before launching new electric cars in the coming years.
Land Rover continues to dominate its portion of the market, with 35,247 new car registrations this year, an impressive 7.3 per cent jump compared to 12 months ago.
