Despite high tariffs on car imports in the US, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Chief Executive Adrian Mardell has said that the management is mulling production operations in America.
Confirming this on 13 May when Tata Motors-owned car group released its highest yearly profit in a decade, Jaguar Land Rover boss said that they're still considering conducting production operations in the US but not immediately.
Will Jaguar Land Rover Leave the UK?
According to The Daily Mail, Jaguar Land Rover, the second biggest car maker in Britain, achieved its highest full-year earnings in 10 years. But, since the automotive giant paused exports to the U.S., sales in late April and early May decreased.
Because of their profits, JLR Chief Executive Adrian said that launching American production is still on the table, meaning that a Jaguar Land Rover US factory could still be constructed. But, Mardell clarified that they have no immediate plans to shift their operations at JLR's main headquarters in the UK or Europe.
'We had and currently have no cause to build cars in the US at this time, but we cannot discount that it could be the case at some point,' said Adrian Mardell via The Independent.
In 2024 alone, Jaguar Land Rover production in the U.K. delivered around 100,000 units to the United States. Some of the JLR imports came from the manufacturer's European plant in Slovakia.
Jaguar Land Rover Not Worried About US Tariffs
Recently, the Trump administration placed a 25% import tax on car units and vehicle parts entering the U.S. This is on top of the existing 2.5% tariff.
These tariff increase could affect the prices of EU-made models. Experts estimated that the US tariffs could add around £18,800 ($25,000) to the new Land Rover Defender, which is JLR's most popular vehicle.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Donald Trump had an agreement to achieve a better US-UK trade deal. They both agreed to reduce the tariffs by 10% for a maximum of 100,000 UK-made cars.
However, if Jaguar Land Rover exceeds this threshold, it would be subjected to a 27.5% import tax. Despite this massive tariff, Mardell said that they should be fine as long as they come below the import level set by the US government.
Confident Mardell said that Jaguar Land Rover ended the year strongly, highlighting their high annual and quarterly earnings.
