JLR’s workshops in the UK are reportedly at “breaking point” due to a massive parts shortage and the company has run out of courtesy vehicles.
According to a report out of the UK from Car Dealer magazine, as many as 10,000 Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles are affected in some way by the shortage, and 5000 of those vehicles are off the road.
We’ve contacted JLR to confirm what impact this parts shortage has had, if any, on the company’s Australian operations.
The dire situation was reportedly addressed by UK client care director Andrew Woolliscroft at a summit with JLR’s dealership network.
“We’ve run out of cars to put clients into and we’ve run out of space to park the cars waiting on parts,” he reportedly told the conference.
It was reportedly revealed at the summit that the problem wouldn’t get any better for at least another six weeks.
Jaguar Land Rover is reportedly grappling with centralising its parts supply network, which Mr Woolliscroft has admitted to being a “mess”.
In addition to combining what were several separate warehouses into one distribution centre dubbed Mercia Park, JLR is also in the process of switching suppliers.
“Mercia is a bottleneck and we have a backlog of orders,” Mr Woolliscroft reportedly told dealer network attendees.
“We have a backlog inbound – as of today we have 80 lorries waiting to unload. We have a backlog in packing, as those parts are unboxed and packed into the warehouse.”
“And we have a backlog outbound as those orders are picked, packed and dispatched.”
He added that JLR was “throwing everything” at the problem and that the UK was the “number one priority ahead of any other market”.
Mr Woolliscroft reportedly apologised and admitted “most of the time it is not that we don’t have the part, it’s just jammed in the system”.
Due to the shortage of parts and the flow-on effect of JLR exhausting its loan car fleet, many customers have been left in the lurch.
Car Dealer magazine reports that one customer who owns a 2017 Range Rover Velar has been stranded for four months. The car reportedly suffered a minor impact which caused the driver assistance radar to fail.
The car has reportedly been unable to be driven ever since, with Land Rover communicating that it’ll be another 1-1.5 months before the part is located. Car Dealer magazine reports many more customers have been affected in similar ways.
“As we deliver our commitment to become carbon net zero across our supply chain, products, and operations by 2039, we are streamlining parts distribution from multiple locations to one global super centre,” a JLR spokesperson told Car Dealer magazine
“This transition has unfortunately caused some temporary delays to the delivery of parts to our retailers.”
