Cyberattack threatens to keep Jaguar Land Rover factories idle until November

"The Tata Motors-owned manufacturer has already endured two weeks of halted production since hackers targeted its systems on 1 September, forcing it to shut down global operations and send thousands of workers home. The company admitted last week that "some data" may have been accessed, and has referred the incident to the Information Commissioner's Office, fuelling concerns that customer details could be at risk."

"Suppliers are now reported to have been warned that assembly lines may remain dark for another seven weeks. The Daily Telegraph cited one source who said November had been floated as a "guidance date which they think is sensible", though stressed that even an earlier restart would take weeks before production returned to a normal run rate of around 1,000 vehicles a day."

"The disruption has paralysed production at JLR's Solihull and Halewood plants, its Wolverhampton engine facility and Castle Bromwich site. Thousands of staff remain on standby, with unions urging the government to consider a temporary furlough-style scheme to subsidise pay and protect livelihoods. The longer the outage continues, the greater the strain on JLR's fragile supply chain. Andy Palmer, former chief executive of Aston Martin, warned he "would not be at all surprised" if some suppliers face insolvency due to the sudden collapse in cashflow."

Jaguar Land Rover halted production after hackers targeted its systems on 1 September, causing global operations to stop and thousands of workers to be sent home. The company acknowledged that "some data" may have been accessed and has referred the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office amid customer data risk concerns. Suppliers were reportedly warned that assembly lines could remain idle for up to seven weeks, with November mentioned as a potential restart guidance date. Production at multiple UK sites has been paralysed, thousands of staff remain on standby, and unions are urging government support to protect pay and livelihoods. Extended outage risks supplier insolvencies and deepens existing commercial headwinds.

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