Jaguar Land Rover appears to be going from strength to strength at the moment, with news that 1,100 employees are to be hired. This is in addition to the 8000 workers that have been employed in the last two years alone.
JLR’s success is largely due to increased sales in countries like China and India, where models such as the Evoque are hugely popular. But as the driveways of the middle classes of Mumbai and Shanghai are being filled up with British luxury autos, the positive effects are being felt here in the UK.
While the employment of more than 9000 workers over the last two years is to be celebrated, there are even more benefits to the expansion of JLR. The firm has awarded over £2bn of contracts to UK based suppliers, many of which are in the north east of England.
JLR’s Indian owners Tata are planning on launching 40 “significant product actions” – which probably means 40 models or model derivatives – over the next 5 years. Such huge ambitions in the luxury/sports car and SUV markets naturally require a huge amount in terms of technological investment, hence this injection of money in recent times.
It is good to see that Tata are investing so much in UK manufacturing, especially when they – of all organisations – could take steps towards building Land Rovers and Jaguars in cheaper countries – not least of which is India.
But some analysts say that in order to fully compete with cars from Japan and Korea, JLR needs to improve reliability; Jags and Range Rovers have not yet attained the reputation of Hondas and Hyundais; these brands arguably do not need car breakdown cover quite as much as their British-made rivals.
Breakdown Cover from 
