Jaguar Land Rover pauses shipments to the US

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has ‘paused’ shipments to the US, as it considers how to address “the new trading terms” of tariffs on UK automotive.

President Donald Trump confirmed last week that new import taxes of 25% on cars and car parts entering the US will apply to the UK, with a 10% blanket tariff also applied to all US imports from the UK.

Some eight million cars were imported to the US last year, equating to $240 billion (£185bn) in trade and approximately half of overall sales.

Mexico is the largest supplier of cars to the US, followed by South Korea, Japan, Canada and Germany. 

For the UK, the US is the second largest car export market after the EU.

In a 12-month period up to the end of the third quarter of 2024, the trade was worth £8.3bn, according to the UK trade department.

In a statement, JLR said: “As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions, including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans.”

A report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), published last week, suggests that the imposition of tariffs will put extreme pressure on the UK car manufacturing industry, threatening jobs and economic growth.

More than 25,000 direct jobs in the car manufacturing industry could be at risk, it says, as exports to America are predicted to fall, with UK employees at Jaguar Land Rover and the Cowley Mini factory seen as some of the most exposed.  

Pranesh Narayanan, research fellow at IPPR, explained: “Trump’s tariffs have huge potential to completely destabilise the UK car manufacturing industry, affecting tens of thousands of jobs and putting the government’s growth plans at jeopardy.  

“However, as one door closes another one opens. There is huge untapped potential in manufacturing green planes, trains and automobiles and selling them at home and abroad.

“If the Government use the upcoming industrial strategy to drive investment in these sectors, this could be the spark that leads to thousands of new consumers to start buying British and buying green.” 

Nissan is thinking about moving some of its production of US-bound vehicles from Japan to the US as early as this summer, financial newspaper Nikkei has reported.

It said last week that it would keep two production shifts at its plant in Tennessee, after announcing plans to scale back operations there in January.

Meanwhile, carmaker Stellantis has said it will temporarily shut down its assembly plant in Windsor, a Canadian city on the US border, due to the new tariffs.