Jaguar Land Rover’s profits almost halved in the last quarter as the impact of US tariffs and declining sales rocked the luxury car manufacturer.
The Tata-owned carmaker said tariffs and currency headwinds were behind a steep 49% fall in underlying pre-tax profits to £351m in the three months to 30 June.
The period started with Donald Trump’s announcement of swingeing tariffs, which briefly led to JLR pausing exports to the US.
A subsequent trade deal between the UK and the US, in which car export tariffs were cut from 27.5% to 10%, was welcomed by JLR but the hiatus contributed to a near £700m drop in revenues, down 9.2% year on year to £6.6bn.
JLR said the US tariffs had a “direct and material impact on profitability and cashflow in the period” but that the “US-UK trade deal will significantly reduce the financial impact of US tariffs going forward”.
A US deal announced with the EU in late July will also “in due course” reduce the impact of tariffs, JLR added, cutting the rate on its EU-made vehicle exports to the US from 27.5% to 15%.
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Adrian Mardell, JLR’s outgoing chief executive, said the results came in “challenging global economic conditions”. He added: “We are grateful to the UK and US governments for delivering at speed the new UK-US trade deal, which will lessen the significant US tariff impact in subsequent quarters, as will, in due course, the EU-US trade deal announced on 27 July 2025.”
He said JLR would invest £3.8bn this financial year in developing its next-generation vehicles, including new electric Range Rover and Jaguar models.
Mardell, who is to be succeeded in November by PB Balaji, the group finance chief of Tata Motors, said JLR remained “focused on delivering its transformational Reimagine Strategy” – something that, allied to controversial marketing, has led to the company being denounced by Trump as a “woke” carmaker.
Trump continued his attacks this week, claiming that JLR was “in absolute turmoil” and labelling its advertising – with a diverse group of models in bright clothing – as stupid and disgraceful.
JLR earlier reported a 15% drop in sales, partly ascribed to the phasing out of older Jaguar models. The Guardian revealed in July that the manufacturer was delaying the planned launches of its new electric models until 2026, allowing for more testing and for demand to pick up.
It opened a voluntary redundancy scheme last month for up to 500 managers as it seeks to reduce its 33,000-strong UK workforce.