Jaguar Land Rover plans to cut costs by 4.5 bln pounds - Sunday Times

Nov 8 (Reuters) - British luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has launched a secret project to cut costs of 4.5 billion pounds ($6.8 billion) and build 1 million cars per year by the end of the decade, the Sunday Times reported.

The project, called Leap 4.5, will entail building more models on similar core skeletons, overhauling the carmaker's supply chains and slowing down or halting the recruitment process, although there are no plans for redundancies, the paper reported citing people familiar with the matter. (http://thetim.es/1NkLxUT)

Leap 4.5, envisaged to offset the effects of slowing sales in China and the costs of meeting emissions standards, will however spare the 3 billion pound-a-year capital spending budget on research and development and building new plants, the Sunday Times said.

Sales in China, the firm's fastest growing market last year, fell 32 percent in the July to September quarter due to an economic slowdown, stock market slump and currency devaluation, which have hit demand in the world's biggest car market.

Tata Motors (BSE: TATAMODVRLR.BO - news) , the parent company of JLR and Jaguar Land Rover, could not be reached for comment. ($1 = 0.6640 pounds) (Reporting by Ankush Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Hugh Lawson (Other OTC: LWSOF - news) )