What the Jaguar Land Rover Cyberattack Tells Manufacturers About Risk
When people talk about cyberattacks, the focus often lands on stolen data or ransom demands. What tends to get overlooked is the quieter damage. Lost production. Missed sales. Supply chains grinding to a halt.
The Jaguar Land Rover cyberattack is a sharp reminder of how quickly digital disruption can turn into a multi-billion-pound commercial problem.
Newly released figures suggest the incident may have cost the business more than £3bn in lost sales. Not through fines or compensation, but through something far more basic. Vehicles simply were not built.
What happened at Jaguar Land Rover
The cyberattack began in September and took weeks to fully resolve. Jaguar Land Rover confirmed that production only returned to normal levels by mid-November, following the incident.
That delay had a clear knock-on effect.
In the last quarter of 2025, JLR recorded 59,200 wholesale sales, excluding its joint venture with Chery in China. In the same period the year before, the figure was 104,000 vehicles.
That represents a year-on-year fall of 43%.
To put the numbers into context, those 104,000 vehicles sold in 2024 generated £7.5bn in revenue. While JLR has not yet disclosed the value of vehicles sold in the disrupted quarter, analysts estimate the shortfall could exceed £3bn.
The regions hit hardest
North America felt the biggest impact.
Wholesale sales in the region fell by 64.4% year-on-year, while retail sales dropped by 37.7%. Overall retail sales across all regions came in at 79,600 vehicles for the quarter, including joint ventures. That was down 25.1% on the previous year and 6.7% compared to Q2.
In its statement, JLR said:
“Production returned to normal levels only by mid-November post the cyber incident. Due to this and also the time required to distribute vehicles globally once produced, wholesale and retail volumes reduced on a quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year basis.”
The business also noted that the planned wind-down of legacy Jaguar models and incremental US tariffs continued to affect volumes. But the cyberattack was clearly a central factor.
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Why cyber incidents hit manufacturers differently
For manufacturers, a cyberattack is rarely just an IT problem.
Modern factories rely on connected systems for scheduling, robotics, inventory and logistics. When those systems go offline, production often stops entirely. Unlike service businesses, lost output cannot always be recovered later.
This is where manufacturing cyber risk becomes especially costly. Every day offline means idle staff, delayed deliveries and lost sales that competitors are often happy to absorb.
In the automotive sector, where margins are tight and volumes matter, even short disruptions can have long-lasting financial consequences.
The insurance angle many businesses underestimate
Events like the Jaguar Land Rover cyberattack have brought renewed attention to business interruption cyber attack exposure.
Traditional business interruption cover does not automatically respond to cyber events. Likewise, cyber insurance varies widely in what it covers, how losses are calculated and how long indemnity periods last.
For manufacturers and motor trade businesses, the key questions are often practical rather than technical. How quickly could production restart? What happens to revenue during downtime? How are supply chain knock-on losses treated?
These are not hypothetical concerns. As this incident shows, the financial impact can run into billions.
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A wider lesson for UK businesses
This is not about singling out one brand. Large organisations tend to be better prepared than most, yet they are not immune.
The real takeaway is that cyber risk is now operational risk.
Whether you manufacture vehicles, components or specialist equipment, the threat is no longer limited to data loss. It is about keeping the business moving when systems fail.
And when they do, the cost is measured not just in headlines, but in missed production, empty order books and lost momentum.
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