JLR halts UK sales ahead of electric relaunch

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has stopped selling new cars in the UK ahead of a relaunch as an electric-only brand in 2026.

The luxury car manufacturer, owned by Tata Motors, said it was a deliberate move to "create some breathing space" before launching the new brand next month. Any remaining cars in UK dealerships will be sold as second hand vehicles and no new cars will be shipped to the UK.

The firm announced the transition to electric vehicles in 2021, keeping all three of its three British plants open as part of the strategy.

Its first car within the new brand will be a four-door GT built in Solihull, West Midlands, JLR said.

Speaking to BBC News, Patrick McGillycuddy managing director of Jaguar UK, said sales of Jaguars in the UK stopped earlier in the week.

"This is very much part of our deliberate plan announced back in 2021 as part of our Re-Imagine strategy that sees us radically re-imagine Jaguar as an exuberant, compelling and disruptive luxury brand but with electric propulsion at its heart," he said.

The manufacturer has sites around the country including Gaydon in Warwickshire, Whitley in Coventry, Solihull, Castle Bromwich and on the i54 business site near Wolverhampton.

In September, JLR said it would spend half a billion pounds upgrading its historic Halewood factory for electric vehicle production.

That investment followed the unveiling of a new £250m test facility in Coventry.

In May, the firm reported its highest pre-tax profits since 2015 of £2.2bn.

David Bailey, industry expert and professor of Business Economics at the Birmingham Business School, said the car giant has faced difficulties in the luxury market, but it was "the right direction of travel" in the long term.

"But it was in probably the toughest segment of the market, which was the premium sector and it never really cut it against the likes of BMW really because of its reliability.

"So what they're trying to do is, well, let's start again. Let's hark back to the glory days of the E-type and XJ from years ago and lets try to reposition the brand."

On Friday, JLR revealed that more than 2,900 orders had been placed for the recently launched £145,000 Land Rover Defender Octa model with about 48,000 people on a waiting list for the new Range Rover Electric car.