Jaguar Land Rover Restarts Operations After Month-Long Cyber Attack Devastates Tata Motors' Key Subsidiary

Tata Motors' subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced the phased restart of manufacturing operations on October 8, 2025, ending a more than month-long production shutdown caused by a devastating cyber attack. The British luxury carmaker will begin operations at its Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre and Battery Assembly Centre in the West Midlands, followed by vehicle production lines in Solihull and Nitra, Slovakia.

The cyber incident, which began on August 31, 2025, forced JLR to shut down its entire global IT network and halt production across all facilities in the UK, China, Slovakia, India, and Brazil. Security experts identified the Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters group as responsible for the attack, which caused estimated losses of £50 million per week and affected over 200,000 workers across the supply chain. 

The cyber attack has delivered a significant blow to Tata Motors' financial performance, with JLR contributing approximately 71% of the company's total revenue and 79% of its total operating profit in FY 2024-25. JLR's Q2 FY26 wholesale volumes plummeted 24.2% year-on-year to 66,165 units, whilst retail sales declined 17.1% to 85,495 units. 

The attack's timing proved particularly damaging as it occurred during what should have been one of JLR's busiest periods, coinciding with the September new vehicle registration season in the UK. Industry analysts estimate the cyber incident caused JLR to lose production of approximately 30,000 vehicles that cannot be recovered.

Tata Motors' stock has reflected these challenges, declining 24% over the past year and trading within a 52-week range of ₹535.75 to ₹948.45. The company's consolidated net profit already showed significant strain in Q1 FY26, falling 62.7% to ₹3,924 crore compared to ₹10,514 crore in the previous year. 

AckoDrive had previously reported on the initial stages of this cyber security incident when Tata Motors first disclosed the IT breach on September 1, 2025, through regulatory filings with the BSE and NSE. The attack forced JLR to proactively shut down its systems to prevent further damage, leading to immediate production halts across its three UK manufacturing plants that normally produce around 1,000 vehicles daily.

The incident highlighted vulnerabilities in JLR's recently upgraded IT infrastructure, which had been modernised through an £800 million deal with Tata Consultancy Services. The integration of systems designed to improve efficiency ironically created a single point of failure that allowed the cyber attack to cripple the entire operation. 

To address the crisis, JLR has implemented a new financing scheme to support suppliers, accelerating payments by up to 120 days from the typical 60-day terms. The company is working with banking partners to provide qualifying suppliers with majority prepayments shortly after order placement, with JLR covering financing costs during the restart phase.

The UK government intervened with unprecedented support, guaranteeing a £1.5 billion loan to help JLR maintain its supply chain, whilst the company has separately arranged a £500 million private loan to stabilise operations. Without adequate cyber insurance coverage, JLR faces bearing the full cost of recovery and lost production. 

The cyber attack compounds existing challenges facing Tata Motors, including 27.5% US trade tariffs on UK and EU-produced vehicles exported to America, which had already reduced JLR's operating margins. JLR had previously cut its FY26 operating profit margin guidance to 5-7% from 8.4% recorded in the previous fiscal year due to these tariff impacts. 

CEO Adrian Mardell acknowledged the severity of the situation, stating that whilst recovery is underway, "there is much more to do" before normal operations resume. Industry experts suggest full recovery may not occur before Christmas, indicating the financial impact will extend well into Tata Motors' third quarter results.