The company, which manufactures luxury cars, including the Jaguar, Defender and Range Rover, does not have a manufacturing facility in the US and exports all the cars it sells there. In the last three months of 2024, 38,000 cars were shipped to the US. The Trump administration imposed a 25% tariff on imported cars as of Thursday.
“The US is an important market for JLR’s luxury brands,” the company said in a statement. “As we work to address new terms of business with our business partners, we are enacting short-term actions, including a pause of shipments in April when we develop medium- to long-term plans.”
The US is the largest single-country export market for UK automobiles, with vehicles worth 6.4 billion pounds ($8.3 billion) shipped in 2023. This is about one tenth of the total UK exports.
Auto rates present a special challenge for the luxury British automakers, including Bentley and Aston Martin. For them, manufacturing setup in the US is not economical and leaves no easy way to patrol customs. Jaguar Land Rover sells about five-fifths of cars in the US.
