Recently, it was reported that Chery Jaguar Land Rover launched a new round of layoffs in October. According to insiders, this round of layoffs starts after the end of the National Day holiday, with a proportion of about 15% -20%, involving multiple departments such as product engineering, quality management, production manufacturing, logistics and shipping management, and compensation of N+1.

　　Image source: Chery Jaguar Land Rover

　　According to sources close to Chery Jaguar Land Rover, the layoffs ended half a month ago. It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of this year, Chery Jaguar Land Rover had already conducted a round of layoffs for outsourced employees, with more of the layoffs being formal employees.

　　Chery Jaguar Land Rover's official response stated that the company is currently undergoing continuous production capacity adjustments, product planning updates, efficiency improvements, and other related organizational adjustments, which inevitably result in some personnel being temporarily unemployed. The company will arrange for personnel involved to take leave and wait for reassignment.

　　Since the beginning of this year, Chery Jaguar Land Rover's sales have not been optimistic. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from January to September this year, Chery Jaguar Land Rover's cumulative wholesale sales were 38112 vehicles, with an average monthly sales of only over 4000 vehicles.

　　Despite the current unfavorable situation, Jaguar Land Rover also had its own glorious moments. In 2012, Jaguar Land Rover and Chery Automobile established a joint venture with a ratio of 50:50 shares, becoming the first high-end car brand in China to be jointly invested by the UK. Since its establishment, it has ranked fourth in the sales volume of domestic luxury brands, second only to BMW, Mercedes Benz, and Audi. From 2010 to 2017, Jaguar Land Rover's sales in China increased from 26100 vehicles to 146000 vehicles, reaching its peak.

　　However, since then, Chery Jaguar Land Rover has started to decline, dropping from its peak sales to 68000 vehicles in 2022. The market share of Chery Jaguar Land Rover in the Chinese luxury car market has also dropped from a high of 6.4% to 2.44%.

　　Industry insiders have analyzed that the decline in Chery Jaguar Land Rover market share is related to its single product line and unfavorable electrification transformation. Chery Jaguar Land Rover focuses on mid to high-end SUVs and sedans as its main products, but the price market covered by the product matrix is relatively limited. In the process of electrification transformation, the starting price of the mid size pure electric SUV I-PACE launched in 2017 was as high as 638000 yuan, and did not receive corresponding market feedback. Since then, multiple models of gasoline to electric vehicles have also had many problems, making it difficult to compete with the rising new forces in China.

　　In addition, product quality issues are also one of the reasons why Jaguar Land Rover was disappointed in China. At the 2015 315 Gala, CCTV exposed issues such as malfunctioning reverse gears and stalling during driving of the Land Rover brand's gearbox. Since then, the brand has been repeatedly complained about by consumers due to issues such as engine oil leakage and abnormal noise inside the car.

　　According to statistics, Jaguar Land Rover launched 13 recalls in China in 2017, recalling over 100000 vehicles, equivalent to over 70% of its annual sales. From 2017 to 2019, Jaguar Land Rover recalled a total of 287000 vehicles. Frequent quality issues and recall incidents have caused significant damage to the Jaguar Land Rover brand image.

　　Image source: Chery Jaguar Land Rover

　　Of course, Jaguar Land Rover has also been trying to change the unfavorable situation. In April of this year, Jaguar Land Rover announced new measures to upgrade the Range Rover, Discovery, and Defender sub brands to independent brands. According to the plan, Land Rover will launch six pure electric vehicles in the next five years, with the first pure electric Range Rover to be launched next year, while Jaguar will directly transform into an electric luxury brand. In the Chinese market, Jaguar Land Rover's performance has also rebounded. This round of layoffs may accumulate strength for the later reversal of the trend.