JLR to end engine supply deal with Ford at Bridgend
Jaguar Land Rover has told Ford it will stop taking petrol engines from the US giant's Bridgend plant in Wales from 2020 – which could mean a big surge in work for its Wolverhampton factory.
Although the factory on the i54 site provides JLR with all its four cylinder engines, the company has been supplied with six and eight cylinder petrol engines from Bridgend under a deal dating back to 2008.
The move puts a question mark over the future of 750 Bridgend employees – half the factory's workforce – who just work on the JLR engines.
Last year the plant made 145,000 JLR engines and 514,000 Ford engines.
Ford said in a statement: "While we do not discuss the details of our contractual arrangements, we have informed our unions that Jaguar Land Rover intends to end our petrol engine supply arrangement slightly earlier than expected in late 2020.
"Given our long-established and successful relationship in the delivery of world-class engines, this is disappointing news for the Ford Bridgend Engine Plant.
"However, as the auto industry is undergoing rapid change, we continue to look at other high-technology opportunities for Bridgend in the future."
Around 145,000 engines are built in Bridgend for JLR out of an annual total of around 650,000.
A JLR spokesman said: "In line with its contractual agreement established in 2008, Jaguar Land Rover has served the required three years notice to Ford Motor Company for the supply of the six and eight cylinder petrol engines from its Bridgend manufacturing plant.
"Ford has been, and remains an important strategic supplier to Jaguar Land Rover under an agreement which was negotiated to support our business until the end of the decade."
JLR has already told Ford it will take in-house production of the diesel engines currently made at Ford's diesel plant in Dagenham from 2020.
It is thought the engine work will switch to the £1 billion Wolverhampton factory, which is currently undergoing a dramatic expansion doubling its size to 2 million sq ft. The site already employs 1,400 people and hundreds more jobs are expected as its workload increases.
The 2020 ending of production from Bridgend also coincides with Jaguar Land Rover's plans to go 'all-electric', offering electric or hybrid versions of all new models launched after the end of the decade.
