If Jaguar’s dead-on-arrival rebrand wasn’t enough, now JLR is forced to stop production due to cyberattacks
It’s been a rough, strange couple of years for Jaguar Land Rover, also known as JLR. Last year, Jaguar discontinued all of its previous models in favor of a dramatic, largely reviled rebrand. A rebrand that won’t see legendary Coventry automaker rolling out new vehicles until next year. Now, a cyberattack has forced Land Rover to halt production through most of September, costing the luxury SUV brand millions per day.
JLR stops production for most of September following a cyberattack
In April, Marks & Spencer stopped taking orders. The reason? A group of hackers calling themselves “Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters” launched a cyberattack on the UK retailer. Now, they’ve turned their attention to JLR.
As a result, Jaguar Land Rover has shut down production, bringing three plants that build over 1,000 vehicles per day to a complete standstill. JLR said “shutting down our systems” was a move to protect, investigate, and restart operations as soon as possible.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham, who works for the union that represents Land Rover workers, says the workers at the British plants shouldn’t fret too much. “Workers in the JLR supply chain must not be made to pay the price for the cyber attack,” said Graham.
But even with worker protections and plans to restart production in place, Jaguar Land Rover’s suppliers might not survive the shutdown, per Autocar. Reports suggest layoffs and bankruptcies could be in progress, and any extension of the shutdowns could make things much, much worse.
The malicious action freezes Land Rover production, though Jaguar isn’t set to start rolling out new vehicles until 2026
Land Rover’s production halt means a temporary freeze for models like the Defender, Discovery, and Range Rover. But the same can’t be said for the other part of JLR, namely Jaguar.
Jaguar stopped producing the XE, XF, F-TYPE, E-PACE, F-PACE, and I-PACE in 2024 and early 2025. In their place, Jaguar is seeking to rebrand itself as an ultra-luxurious and mold-breaking EV builder.
The move discontinued production of new Jaguars until 2026. In the meantime, the cyberattack hasn’t done much to reduce Jaguar’s new production figures from zero to, well, zero.
