Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) boss Ralf Speth said a hard Brexit could end up costing the company around £1.2 billion a year in tariffs. Tariffs on £5 billion worth of imported parts for JLR (40 percent of the total number of parts used) threatens the feasibility of producing cars in the UK.
Speth warned of the threat to JLR of a no-deal Brexit, saying: “I don’t want to threaten anybody, but we have to make transparent the implications of the move. We want to stay in the UK. Jaguar Land Rover’s heart and soul is in the UK. If I’m forced to go out because we don’t have the right deal, then we have to close plants here in the UK and it will be very, very sad. This is hypothetical, and I hope it’s an option we never have to go for.”
Speth added, “We built up this company over eight years. All that will be undone. It can go down the river so quickly. We urgently need greater certainty to continue to invest heavily in the UK and safeguard our suppliers, customers and 40,000 British-based employees."
JLR invests around £5 billion a year in research and development and in its production facilities.
