British government pushes Jaguar Land Rover off road after hackers
The computer system shutdown paralyzed Jaguar Land Rover's operations for nearly the entire month of September. According to some estimates, which are likely conservative, the hacker attack has impacted its accounts by £1 billion. To get things moving again, the British group has obtained a £1 billion guarantee from Her Majesty's Government and has simultaneously requested an additional £2 billion from fellow British Standard Chartered Bank, the American Citigroup, and Japan's Mitsubishi Ufk Financial Group.
Her Majesty's Government has announced it will underwrite a £1.5 billion loan guarantee for Jaguar Land Rover, a British brand – albeit owned by India's Tata – that was forced off the road by a hacker attack unprecedented in the automotive industry.
THE CROWN GUARANTEE
The hacker attack claimed by the Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters group at the end of August caused a blackout that paralyzed all plants located from Great Britain to India, all the way to Chinese hubs, also impacting Jaguar Land Rover's suppliers. A devastating blow to the Group's business.
HOW MUCH WILL THE HACKER ATTACK COST JAGUAR LAND ROVER?
The well-known publication Automotive News reports a potentially catastrophic situation for Jaguar Land Rover that risks impacting its next quarterly results: following the decision to take all systems offline, the British manufacturer has already lost £1 billion ($1.36 billion) in revenue due to the continued shutdown. Initially, losses of £50 million a week were predicted, but it quickly became clear that the damage was far greater.
THE JAGUAR LAND ROVER SUPPLY CHAIN MUST BE SAVED
Hence the British government's decision to step in, effectively acting as a guarantor. The government will act through the government's export credit agency, UK Export Finance, which will cover any losses should Jaguar Land Rover fail to repay the loan within the five-year period. This is currently unlikely, given that it is backed by Tata Motors. The real benefit of this instrument should be to moderate the interest rates applied to the loan, given the British government's prestige.
WHAT THE UK GOVERNMENT SAYS
Business Minister Peter Kyle said: “This cyber attack was not just an attack on an iconic British brand, but also on our world-leading automotive sector and the men and women whose livelihoods depend on it.”
But above all, the loan, provided by a commercial bank, is expected to provide a measure of security for the company's suppliers. Indeed, it is the undergrowth of companies and SMEs scattered across Great Britain that most concerns the government: many of these, when Jaguar Land Rover was forced to suspend orders and contracts, began laying off workers. And it's clear the government intends to avoid a surge in unemployment that would accelerate the industrial desertification already underway in several parts of Great Britain. Jaguar Land Rover employs a total of 32,000 people, but those in related industries account for around 100,000.
THE CONTROVERSY OVER AID
A major supplier, the Guardian reports, expressed frustration with the government's decision to support JLR rather than the supply chain. The loan guarantee "doesn't necessarily guarantee the injection of cash and liquidity into the supply chain," the source said. Last week, a group of suppliers told ministers that a loan program wouldn't work.
There is indeed concern about the speed with which this liquidity will reach the manufacturer's deposits, only to later flow into the streams of companies affected by the same crisis. "Following our decisive action, this loan guarantee will help support the supply chain and protect skilled jobs in the West Midlands, Merseyside, and across the UK," Kyle attempted to reassure.
ANOTHER LOAN LINE?
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves echoed her sentiments, saying: “Jaguar Land Rover is an iconic British company that employs tens of thousands of people, a jewel in the crown of our economy.” Through the guarantee, “we are protecting thousands of those jobs with private funding, helping them shore up their supply chain and protect a vital part of the British automotive industry.”
However, the money does not seem to be enough, in fact, the Economic Times reports, Jaguar Land Rover has reportedly separately signed another £2 billion debt agreement with the British Standard Chartered Bank, the American Citigroup and the Japanese Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
JAGUAR LAND ROVER TRIES TO GET BACK ON THE ROAD
As for the company, it's time to get going again. On Saturday, a Sunday Times article stated that management was planning to reopen its engine manufacturing center in early October. Therefore, the first factory to be reconnected to the IT system that Jaguar Land Rover technicians had deactivated "for security reasons" (this is the Group's explanation, which cited some data compromised by hackers without providing details) will be the one in Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands, on October 6th. Then the factories in Halewood, Solihull, and Castle Bromwich will have to be reconnected. Before the hacker attack, Jaguar Land Rover was churning out 1,000 vehicles a day in the UK alone, second only to Nissan.
WE START AGAIN IN THE UK, THEN IN THE REST OF THE WORLD
But it doesn't end there, as the shutdown of the central brain has also paralyzed plants around the world: the Group's factories in Slovakia, China, and India are still closed, with employees at home. The company has already announced that the restart will be phased and without disruption, with "safe and controlled" management of the reactivation of industrial systems. Priority has obviously been given to restoring some essential services, such as supplier payments and digital vehicle registration. However, the maneuver to extricate the historic British off-road vehicles from the quagmire appears to have only just begun.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/il-governo-britannico-spinge-jaguar-land-rover-finita-fuori-strada-per-colpa-degli-hacker/ on Tue, 30 Sep 2025 12:45:40 +0000.