British luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover said on Saturday it had suspended shipments to the US in April, days after President Trump's car rates came into effect.
The company, which manufactures luxury cars, including the Jaguar, Defender and Range Rover, does not have a manufacturing facility in the US and exports all the cars it sells there. In the last three months of 2024, 38,000 cars were shipped to the US. The Trump administration imposed a 25% tariff on imported cars as of Thursday.
“The US is an important market for JLR's luxury brands,” the company said in a statement. “As we work to address new terms of business with our business partners, we are enacting short-term actions, including a pause of shipments in April when developing medium to long-term plans.”
The US is the largest single-country export market for UK automobiles, with vehicles worth 6.4 billion pounds ($8.3 billion) shipped in 2023. This is about one tenth of the total UK exports.
Auto rates present a special challenge for the luxury British automakers, including Bentley and Aston Martin. For them, manufacturing setup in the US is not economical and leaves no easy way to patrol customs.
Jaguar Land Rover sells about five-fifths of cars in the US. In the fiscal year ended March 2024, it sold approximately 95,000 cars and reported revenue of £6.5 billion in US revenue. If the company adds the full cost of customs duties to the price of the vehicle, it adds thousands of dollars.
Other UK exports to the US face 10% tariffs, and Trump announced last week what he called “liberation day.” So far, the UK government has not retaliated, and officials say it is focused on reaching a technology-focused trade deal with the US. At the same time, authorities will be consulting with businesses over the next four weeks about a list of US imports that could face retaliatory UK tariffs.
The United States is the UK's second largest trading partner, but its trade is easily extended by the flow of goods and services between the UK and the European Union. UK trade with the US is heavily distorted by services.
The commodity trading that President Trump has focused on is relatively balanced. According to the UK's National Statistics Office, in 2023, the UK imported around 58 billion pounds of goods and exported around 600 billion pounds.
Shares in Tata Motors, the Indian parent of Jaguar Land Rover, have fallen by more than 9% in the past week, trading at the lowest level since mid-2023.
