JLR wins £1.5 billion loan lifeline from UK govt as cyberattack halts production and hits jobs

Britain will back Jaguar Land Rover with a £1.5 billion ($2 billion) loan guarantee to shore up its supply chain after a cyberattack forced the luxury carmaker to halt production for nearly a month.

The Tata Motors-owned company, which builds around 1,000 vehicles a day across three UK factories, has been struggling to keep suppliers afloat. Some smaller firms had warned they were just days away from running out of cash, with others cutting hours or laying off staff.

Business minister Peter Kyle called the hack “not only an assault on an iconic British brand, but on our world-leading automotive sector,” adding, “This loan guarantee will help support the supply chain and protect skilled jobs.”

The support will be provided through a commercial bank loan guaranteed by UK Export Finance, Britain’s export credit agency, and repaid over five years. The government expects the measure to unlock £1.5 billion in supply-chain support.

The attack earlier this month disrupted JLR operations not only in the UK but also in Slovakia, Brazil and India, rippling through the wider automotive ecosystem. The Labour government had been weighing options for weeks to ease the fallout on suppliers, some of whom sent workers home or awaited overdue payments.

JLR employs 34,000 people in the UK, with another 120,000 jobs linked to its supply chain around Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city, and Liverpool.

The cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover earlier this month forced the carmaker to halt production across multiple sites, including its UK, Slovakia, Brazil, and India plants, causing severe disruption to its global supply chain. The attack, which remains under investigation, crippled key systems and left some suppliers unable to operate or receive payments, triggering job cuts and cash flow crises among smaller vendors.

While JLR has not publicly disclosed the nature or origin of the breach, the fallout has highlighted vulnerabilities in the automotive sector’s digital infrastructure and prompted swift government intervention to contain the economic impact.