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Jaguar Land Rover to cut thousands of UK jobs

LONDON — Britain's biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is set to cut thousands of jobs as the company faces lower demand in China and a slump in sales of diesel cars in Europe. The central English firm builds a higher proportion of its cars in Britain than any other major or medium-sized carmaker and has also spent millions of pounds preparing for Brexit, in case there are tariffs or customs checks. Britain's business minister Greg Clark said on Thursday it is clear why a no-deal Brexit would add to the problems with further costs and disruption. JLR lost 354 million pounds ($450 million) between April and September 2018 and had already cut around 1,000 roles in Britain, shut its Solihull plant for two weeks and announced a three-day week at its Castle Bromwich site. Its Chief Executive Ralf Speth warned in September that the wrong Brexit deal could cost tens of thousands of car jobs and posed a threat to production at the automaker. The Tata Motors-owned company, which employs around 40,000 people in Britain and has boosted its workforce at new plants in China and Slovakia in recent years, unveiled plans to cut costs and improve cash flows by 2.5 billion pounds last year including "reducing employment costs and employment levels." Those cuts will be "substantial" and run into the thousands, the source told Reuters. "The announcement on job losses will be substantial, affecting managerial, research, sales, design," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, not affecting production-line staff "at this stage." The company declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on Thursday. Ford also said on Thursday it will cut thousands of jobs in Europe, exit unprofitable markets and discontinue loss-making vehicle lines as part of a turnaround effort aimed at improving profit margins in the region. Brexit warnings JLR, which became Britain's biggest carmaker in 2016, had been on course to build around 1 million vehicles by the turn of the decade, reported on Thursday a 4.6 percent drop in full-year sales to just under 600,000 vehicles. Demand in China, which had once been one of its strongest countries but has since been hit by a slowdown, fell by 21.6 percent, the biggest drop of any of its markets. "The economic slowdown in China along with ongoing trade tensions is continuing to influence consumer confidence," said Jaguar Land Rover Chief Commercial Officer Felix Brautigam.

Jaguar Land Rover details JustDrive connectivity suite

JustDrive will allegedly deliver on the long-promised idea of natural communication between driver and car.
Jaguar Land Rover's all-new InControl system is set to get a big bump as the British company will add a new service called JustDrive, which expands on the smartphone-focused infotainment system by adding a singular voice controller for a wide array of the system's currently available apps.

Aston Martin DB10 spied in action on James Bond Spectre set

Spectre, the next film in the James Bond franchise, is due for release on November 6 of this year. That means there's filming happening right now all over Europe as scenes are stitched together, and one of them involves the Aston Martin DB10 shuffling through maneuvers at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England. Our guess is that Bond has become an unwelcome guest at a fancy event – there's a Porsche 959 and a Bugatti EB110 in the courtyard – which is why he is forced to make one of his quick-reversing escapes under fire. While that was being captured last week, the Spectre production crew put together another behind-the-scenes clip from filming in Austria, which gives us a look at the Range Rover Sport SVR and Land Rover Defender "Bigfoot" crushing it up some snowy mountain passes. That clip is below. Yes, we're excited. News Source: L Verse Studios via YouTube, Motor Trend TV/Movies Aston Martin Land Rover Coupe SUV Luxury Off-Road Vehicles Performance Videos spectre aston martin db10