Jaguar Land Rover is shutting its Halewood factory for nine days this month because of weak sales.
Britain’s largest carmaker said the move was not linked to the coronavirus outbreak, which has caused China’s car market to grind to a halt.
The Merseyside plant, which employs just under 4,000 people, will close from 19 to 27 March.
A spokeswoman said the company informed its workers of the closure on 13 January, before the reality of the virus outbreak became clear.
In January, JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, announced the end of the night shift in Halewood, putting 500 jobs at risk.
Halewood and Solihull will also close for a week at Easter and a week at the end of May for Whitsun, in regular holidays that were scheduled in November.
Last month, the company warned it could have to close several UK plants due to coronavirus delays.
The carmaker said it was flying components in suitcases, stating it only had enough resources to keep its factories running for another fortnight.
Sir Ralf Speth, its chief executive, said the company’s British plants are "safe for this week" and the week after, but faced difficulties sourcing parts from China in the weeks after, which represent "a risk for overall production".
"We have flown parts in suitcases from China to the UK just to make sure that we have got the right parts," he said, adding that in the week before, the company was missing 38 key components, namely key fobs.
