Jaguar Land Rover to stop Defender production due to chip shortfall
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has been forced to pause production of its Defender 4×4 due to the ongoing global shortage of semi-conductor chips.
The firm has been forced to slow down output at its factory at Nitra in Slovakia, where it makes the popular model, as a result of the shortfall,.
It was scheduled to build 150,000 of the cars this year, but had already warned that it could struggle to fulfil orders this year.
“Like other automotive manufacturers, we’re currently experiencing some Covid-19 supply chain disruption, including the global availability of semiconductors, which is having an impact on our production schedules,” JLR said in a statement.
“As a result, we are adjusting production schedules in some of our plants to reflect this. We continue to see strong customer demand for our range of vehicles.
“We’re working closely with affected suppliers to resolve the issues and minimise the impact on customer orders wherever possible.”
The firm did not say when production would resume. Automotive News Europe first reported the shutdown.
JLR has already faced disruption this year as a result of the semiconductor dearth, having had to idle production lines at its factories in Castle Bromwich and Halewood in April.
Every major carmaker has been impacted by the shortage, which came about due to the rise in demand for electric goods like laptops and tablets during lockdown.
Politicians around the world are looking at ways to produce more of the chips after manufacturers warned that the current shortage was likely to extend into 2022.
It is estimated that the shortfall will cost carmakers £110bn this year alone.