Recent headlines about Chinese manufacturer Chery expanding its UK footprint have prompted a familiar question among Jaguar watchers: what role, if any, might Jaguar Land Rover play in all this? Well, the confirmed facts are as follows…
Chery has announced plans to establish a European headquarters in Liverpool, supporting its growing Omoda and Jaecoo brands. At the same time, Jaguar Land Rover has committed £500 million to transform its Halewood plant into a future-ready facility capable of building internal-combustion, hybrid and electric vehicles side by side.
Halewood, of course, already builds the Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport — and JLR has been explicit that the investment is about long-term electrification, workforce training and flexibility, not short-term model changes. Nothing in JLR’s official statements suggests Jaguar production is returning there, nor that the company has altered its stated brand strategy.
JLR and Chery are not strangers. The two companies have operated a 50:50 joint venture in China since 2012, producing Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles for the local market. That relationship is well established, even if the Chinese JV is now being wound down as part of wider restructuring.
Against that backdrop, reports in the national and automotive press suggest early-stage discussions have taken place — involving government as well as industry — about whether under-utilised UK manufacturing capacity could, in future, be used to assemble Chery vehicles. Crucially, no deal has been announced, and neither JLR nor Chery has confirmed that UK production will happen.
This is where reasonable speculation — and only speculation — enters the picture. JLR’s heavy investment has created a highly modern, flexible plant at a time when Jaguar has deliberately exited the mid-market and paused UK Jaguar production entirely. If third-party manufacturing were ever to make sense, Halewood would be one of the very few UK sites capable of doing it.
Add one more layer of context. Earlier this month, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited China, the first British PM to do so since 2018, explicitly to reset trade relations and encourage inward investment. Jaguar Land Rover was among the UK firms represented. Again, no manufacturing agreements were announced — but the political backdrop is clearly going to have an effect.
There is currently no evidence that JLR will build Chery cars in the UK. There is no official statement that Halewood is earmarked for third-party production. And there is no proven link between Jaguar’s withdrawal from the mid-market and any future manufacturing deal.
But with Chery moving into Liverpool, Halewood being retooled at great expense, and long-standing links already in place, it is perhaps understandable that media outlets are joining the dots — even if, for now, those dots remain unconnected.
As ever, we’ll stick to what can be proven in Jaguar Enthusiast Magazine — and keep a close eye on what happens next.
One Response
Really is pathetic! They suck up to the Chinese whose only goal is world domination and to put JLR and UK manufacturing out of business, supported by our communist PM, who if we don’t watch out, will end up destroying every UK manufacturing job left! I personally try never to buy Chinese products,. and will pay 2-3 times more not to, and if 50% of the population had that attitude, it would stop the Chinese in their tracks.