9:03 am, October 10, 2025
JLR has stepped up its its return to production, with lines in Solihull getting back underway yesterday.
Car Dealer reported earlier in the week that the embattled carmaker had resumed ‘some production’ at sites across the West Midlands and Merseyside on Wednesday.
However, this initially did not include the production lines in Solihull, which remained mothballed for a further day.
It has now been confirmed that around 6,500 employees were back working at the site yesterday (Oct 9) with only a few lines still lying dormant.
It is hoped that those final operations, which make the Range Rover Velar SUV, will come back on stream next Monday, alongside vehicle manufacturing operations in Halewood, Merseyside.
JLR says that, if that phase goes smoothly, it will be followed by the return of overseas factories in India and Brazil later next week.
Speaking yesterday, JLR global manufacturing director Luis Vara said there is now a ‘strong sense of unity and momentum’ among production workers, who were told to work from home after the firm’s systems were hacked on August 31.
The hack wrecked the ability of JLR dealers to register cars on September new plate day and IT systems have largely remained out of action ever since.
The firm has the largest supply chain in the UK automotive sector, which employs around 120,000 people and is largely made up of small and medium-sized businesses.
The government recently announced it would underwrite a £1.5 bn loan guarantee to JLR to give suppliers some certainty over payments, helping bolster JLR’s cash reserves, but calls mounted for more to be done.
JLR said on Tuesday that its extended support package would see suppliers paid much faster than under the usual payment terms, by as much as 120 days early.
It will start with qualifying JLR suppliers seen as critical to the restart of production, then will be expanded to cover some non-production suppliers who have also been affected.
The firm, which has also recently revealed a major slump in sales, has vowed to pay back financing costs for those JLR suppliers who use the scheme during the restart phase.
A raft of other businesses have been hit by major cyber attacks in recent months, including beer giant Asahi, high street retailer Marks & Spencer and nursery group Kido Schools.
