JAGUAR Land Rover has reported a shocking £3.6billion loss over the past year following a slump in Chinese sales and a drop in drive for diesel cars.
The luxury car manufacturer, which announced 4,500 job cuts earlier this year, fell from a £400million profit made in 2018.
Britain’s biggest car manufacturer, which is owned by Indian conglomerate Tata, blamed a weak Chinese market for a 5.8 per cent decline in sales in the country.
The majority of Jaguar Land Rover’s vehicles are diesel, a fuel that many drivers are steering away from to escape a new tax, and has also been named as a reason for the massive loss.
Chief executive, Dr Ralf Speth said: “Jaguar Land Rover has been one of the first companies in its sector to address the multiple headwinds simultaneously sweeping the automotive industry.
“We are focused on the future as we overcome the structural and cyclical issues that impacted our results in the past financial year.
“We will go forward as a transformed company that is leaner and fitter, building on the sustained investment of recent years in new products and the autonomous, connected, electric and shared technologies that will drive future demand.”
But the firm remained positive about recent sales after a £120million pre-tax profit in the fourth quarter to March 31 2019 after nine months of losses.
It also saw potential for the market in the UK and north America which jumped 8.4 per cent and 8.1 per cent respectively over the year.
The company launched a £2.5 billion turnaround programme earlier this year and has so far spent more than £149 million on redundancy costs.
The turnaround programme has already delivered £1.25 billion in cost savings and efficiencies, the firm said.
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Deepening losses come after it was reported earlier this month that PSA – the owner of Peugeot, Citroen and Vauxhall – was eyeing up a deal to acquire the luxury car manufacturer.
Meanwhile Rolls-Royce Motor Cars chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos previously pledged that the carmaker will remain in Britain post-Brexit.
The commitment came as the company unveiled record sales figures, up 22 per cent in 2018 on the previous year.
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