
Photo: VCG
Jaguar Land Rover Automotive says it may never recoup the sales lost because of the deadly coronavirus outbreak that’s stifled production and kept customers away from dealerships in one of the company’s biggest markets.
“At the moment, we don’t see anything happening in terms of demand in China,” Chief Executive Officer Ralf Speth said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “Now the question will be: ‘Will this kind of loss of demand be caught up, or will we just see a normal rise in demand?’ Nobody knows and nobody knows how long it will take.”
JLR, a unit of India’s Tata Motors Ltd., gets about 20% of its sales from China. While its facility in the city of Changshu near Shanghai is expected to reopen next week, the impact of parts shortages could affect the company’s U.K. production. Its plants have only about two weeks worth of supplies left, Speth said.
Separately Reuters reported that Speth said the company’s British production lines only have enough parts produced in China to maintain two more weeks of production at the moment.
Reporting by Bloomberg and Caixin
Related: Jaguar Land Rover in Uphill Battle to Revive China Operation

