In a major turn of events witnessed across the UK’s vehicle manufacturing sector, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), a subsidiary of Tata Motors, has decided to slash the car production at its Halewood plant during the second quarter of this year. The company officials have reportedly claimed that the UK’s decision to withdraw from the EU and rise in the taxes on diesel-powered vehicles had adversely impacted its car sales not just in the country, but across Europe as well.
Meanwhile, statistics obtained from a few reliable trade associations have demonstrated that the demand for new vehicles manufactured by JLR has reduced by nearly 5.7% in 2017. It has been observed that registration of nearly 2.54 million new cars took place last year as compared to registration of 2.69 million new vehicles in 2016 in the UK. As per the car sales estimates of the firm in December 2017, it was observed that the demand for Jaguars had declined by almost 20%, while the sales of Land Rover vehicles had gone down by nearly 16% across the country.
According to the information available from the authentic reports, it has been learnt that the UK government will raise the excise duty on the vehicles for the customers buying a new diesel car and the new law is likely to come into effect from April this year. Industry analysts have stated that the decision is likely to adversely affect the diesel car sales of the firm which constitutes nearly 90% of its sales in the UK.
It has been forecast that Brexit and the rise in the excise duty will also affect the car sales of various other automobile manufacturers in the country apart from Jaguar. Sources have claimed that the automotive manufacturer is also likely to scale down the production of its Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport car models this year.