Jaguar Land Rover reveals shocking update in wake of cyberattack | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

The cyberattack Jaguar Land Rover experienced in September devastated the company’s bottom line.

The British luxury automaker, which India’s Tata Motors owns, had to shut down production and computer systems for the entire month.

Jaguar Land Rover at a glance:

Founded in 2008, when Tata Motors purchased it from Ford for $2.23 billion
Also owns the rights to Daimler, Lanchester, and Rover
2024 revenue £28.99 billion ($38.90 billion)
2024 net income £2.57 billion ($3.45 billion)
40,000 employees worldwide, including 33,000 in the UK; largest UK auto employer

The attack initially led the company to close its three factories in Britain, which produce about 1,000 cars a day. It has told many of its 33,000 staff to stay home during the process.

On Tuesday, Sept. 23, the company said it would close all of its global factories — including ones in China, Slovakia, India, and Brazil — until at least October 1. However, that deadline had been delayed twice.

On Oct. 7, the company detailed some of the business it lost in the second quarter.

Jaguar Land Rover had to pause production for over a month following a cyberattack.

Image source&colon; Jaguar Land Rover

Jaguar Land Rover reports massive sales decline due to cyber hack

On Oct. 7, Jaguar Land Rover told investors that wholesale volumes fell 24% in the second quarter to 66,165 vehicles, while retail sales fell 17% to 85,495.

JLR CEO Adrian Mardell called the quarter, which runs from July to September, “challenging,” adding, “In the first two months, our performance was robust and in line with our expectations, against the backdrop of the planned wind-down of legacy Jaguar models and the impact of incremental U.S. tariffs.”

Retail volumes fell in every market, but the most significant drop was experienced in the UK, the epicenter of the cyberattack.

Speaking of which, JLR says its engines and battery units will restart work on Oct. 8, as will parts of its vehicle production plant, including its body shop and paint shop staffers.

All told, about 33,000 of its workers will return to work Oct. 8 after weeks.

“From the start of September, we have been responding to a cyber incident, which shut down our production. Since then, we have worked with retailers to prioritise the delivery of our world-class vehicles to our clients,” said Mardell.

JLR isn’t scheduled to report its full Q2 results until next month, so we won’t know exactly how much the incident cost, but damages could be in the billions.

Jaguar Land Rover may not be insured for the cyberattack

Last month, reports emerged that Jaguar Land Rover failed to finalize a cyberattack insurance deal brokered by insurance provider Lockton before the attack.

If this is the case, JLR could lack direct coverage for an incident that could cost it billions.

For the quarter ended in June, Jaguar Land Rover reported revenue of £6.6 billion ($8.8 billion) with a profit of £351 million ($472 million).

Based on those numbers, a month-long shutdown could cost billions of dollars and seriously strain the company’s profit margin; without insurance, the company could be on the hook for all of those losses.

One analyst estimated that JLR has lost more than £1 billion ($1.36 billion in revenue) since the attack.

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“JLR have the resources to withstand this financial shock, and their employees are still getting paid during the downtime, but their supply chain is now severely impacted by this — they’re not shipping parts, so they’re not getting paid,” automotive analyst Charles Tennant told Coventry Live.

UK government officials, including Tipton and Wednesbury Labour MP Antonia Bance, are advocating for a government loan program to help shore up JLR and its supply chain.