Jaguar Land Rover scales back production at two plants

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is reducing the number of vehicles it makes at two of its UK manufacturing facilities in response to falling demand.

According to Reuters, JLR will halt production at its Castle Bromwich plant over a four-week period from late February until the end of March, following a reduction in demand for the Jaguar XE, XF and F-TYPE.

Car-making will also cease at JLR's Solihull factory for a number of half- and full days, reducing production of the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar and Jaguar F-PACE.

Commenting on the decision to wind back the number of vehicles it makes, a JLR spokesperson said:

“The external environment remains challenging for our industry and the company is taking decisive actions to achieve the necessary operational efficiencies to safeguard long-term success.

“We have confirmed that Solihull and Castle Bromwich will make some minor changes to their production schedules to reflect fluctuating demand globally, whilst still meeting customer needs.”

In European markets, JLR has been caught out by the falling sales of both sedans and diesels.

A sales slump in China has also been blamed.

Despite the gloom, Land Rover said sales of both the recently-launched Range Rover Evoque are up by 30 per cent while Discovery Sport sales have also increased more than nine per cent.

JLR has already announced an initiative to introduce dramatic cost-cutting to boost profit following a 2.3 per cent drop in retail sales in the last three months of 2019.

As part of Project Charge, the British car-maker says it will save £1.1 billion ($A2.1b) in the near term, bringing total reductions to £4 billion ($A7.7b).