JLR May Have Suffered a £540 Million Hit Due to Cyberattack

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is likely to suffer a loss of £540 million ( ₹6,300 crore)—about a third of its 2024-25 profit—due to the September cyberattack, according to Cyber Monitoring Centre, an independent agency that tracks the impact of cyber hits on UK-based firms.

The luxury carmaker, whose production was crippled for more than a month, will be able to fully resume production by January 2026 as it begins a phased restart of operations at its plants. This is the first such estimate from an agency on the hack's impact on JLR, which accounted for more than 71% of Tata Motors' ₹4.4 trillion revenue in 2024-25.

The UK-based carmaker had posted a profit of £1.8 billion in the last fiscal. "During the period where production was halted, the reduction in UK manufacturing was close to 5,000 vehicles per week, with each week resulting in a modelled loss to JLR’s UK manufacturing operations of £108 million, comprising fixed costs and lost profit," said the agency.

The production was affected for a period of five weeks. JLR's systems began coming online in late September, with all its plants now resuming operations in a phased manner. The attack had disrupted production at the company's three manufacturing facilities—Solihull, Halewood, and Wolverhampton—in the UK, as well as the ones in Pune, India, and Nitra, Slovakia.

“An early January return is based on input from experts that JLR is likely to encounter some additional complexity in its return to full operations, either due to the ongoing challenges within the IT infrastructure or supply chain constraints,” said the agency.

Impact of Cyberattack

Industry studies estimate that every hour of downtime in an automotive plant can cost between $1.5-2 million in lost output. According to Harshvardhan Sharma, group head for auto tech and innovation at Nomura Research Institute Consulting & Solutions India, "Every hour of downtime costs JLR a significant amount."

A Financial Times report in September estimated that the hit could cause a revenue loss of up to £2 billion as JLR did not have insurance against the cyberattack. The financial impact of the cyberattack could be comparable to, or even exceed, the impact of the increase in tariffs in the US.

Comparison with Tariff Impact

Tata group chairperson N. Chandrasekaran stated during Tata Motors' annual general meeting on 20 June that the tariff impact would be primarily on JLR, with a total estimated loss of £1.6 billion. However, due to steps taken by the company, the impact has gone down to £600 million, which is visible in the margin guidance.

“The overall impact would have been £1.6 billion. But due to the steps taken by JLR, the impact has gone down to £600 million,” said Chandrasekaran during Tata Motors' annual general meeting on 20 June.

Impact on Investors

Investors have expressed concerns about the impact of this series of developments on JLR and Tata Motors, with its shares being the worst-performing among the carmakers. Shares of Tata Motors declined 12% since the start of the calendar year, up to 14 October, the demerger record date.

The Nifty Auto surged by around 16% in the same period. The demergerg of passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles is also seen as a concern for investors.