JLR deploy global fleet on emergency response partners for COVID-19 by MIKE OCHONMA

Jaguar and Land Rover have deployed more than 160 vehicles globally to support emergency response organisations during the coronavirus crisis.

A total of 57 vehicles including 27 new Defenders have been issued to the British Red Cross to deliver medicine and food to vulnerable people across the UK who now need additional support due to social distancing rules.

Jaguar and Land Rover teams in Spain, France, South Africa and Australia have also loaned vehicles to their Red Cross societies and more markets are offering help to their local teams. This service is being provided with fleets of vehicles now available due to the postponement of launch events.

Meanwhile the JLR team is working closely with the UK government and has offered its research and engineering expertise. Protective equipment is being donated to the NHS including wraparound safety glasses to the Royal Bolton Hospital, St James’s Hospital in Leeds and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Finbar McFall, Jaguar Land Rover Customer Experience Director, said: “The health and safety of our employees, customers and their families remains our priority. Jaguar and Land Rover will do everything we can to support people in need around the world’’.

He said that JLR’s partnership with the Red Cross goes back 65 years and we will work hand in hand with them to do all we can during this global health emergency. We will also provide help to those closer to home in our local communities. We can all play a part in helping the vulnerable during this global pandemic”.

Simon Lewis, Head of Crisis Response, British Red Cross said: “This unprecedented global health emergency requires us all to pull together. As part of the British Red Cross response to coronavirus, we’re delving deep into the heart of communities across the UK to help strengthen support for the most vulnerable people through delivering essential food parcels and medicines to those unable to get out’’.