JLR faces wider recall risk over Range Rover steering part scrutiny

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JLR Range Rover recall risk

Highlights

U.S. NHTSA expanded its Range Rover steering knuckle defect investigation in April to include newer models, questioning JLR’s recall decision-making and supplier processes.
JLR's 2024–2025 U.S. recalls covered over 120,000 vehicles, but the global number of potentially affected Range Rover and Range Rover Sport vehicles could approach 1 million.
Regulatory scrutiny and recall scope escalation add operational and financial pressure on JLR and Tata Motors amid restructuring and recent workforce and production challenges.

Regulators examine JLR’s handling of the defect

As first reported by the Financial Times, Jaguar Land Rover knew years ago that fractures in a steering knuckle could continue even after a suspected supplier manufacturing fault had been addressed, according to people familiar with an internal investigation. The component links each front wheel to the suspension and steering system, and a filing by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a fracture could cause drivers of Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports to lose control.

JLR says it rejects any suggestion that it knowingly failed to act on an identified safety defect. The company says it carried out voluntary recalls covering some 2014-17 previous-generation Range Rover and Range Rover Sport vehicles, that owners of potentially affected vehicles have been notified as appropriate, and that it continues to engage with regulatory authorities.

NHTSA, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, widens its investigation in April to include newer vehicles beyond the older models covered by existing U.S. recalls and says much of the information provided by JLR has been contradictory. The DoT says NHTSA’s engineering analysis is closely reviewing the automaker’s internal investigations, recall decision-making and supplier manufacturing processes, and adds that it will not hesitate to take enforcement action if basic safety rules were not followed.

The scrutiny follows years of exchanges with regulators. JLR was aware of a potential knuckle problem as early as 2017, when it told dealers in Russia to replace parts on some vehicles, while the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency began questioning the company in 2019 after a wheel collapse linked to a cracked knuckle.

In September 2020, JLR told the UK regulator the issue stemmed from an uncontrolled heat treatment process at a supplier that had been corrected in 2015 and affected only a small batch of 2014 and 2015 vehicles. But by January 2021, according to two people familiar with the probe, an internal investigation had identified an ongoing failure rate despite manufacturing changes, and engineers concluded a seam known as a flash line ran through a high-stress area of the part.

By May 2021, the group had completed what an internal presentation described as a permanent corrective action by redesigning the component to move the seam away from the vulnerable area, the people say. That presentation cited 2,698 warranty claims worldwide, including 982 involving Range Rover Sport vehicles, and identified failures beyond the early batch previously linked to manufacturing problems.

Recall scope could widen amid business pressure

Regulators in the UK, Canada and the U.S. continue to test whether JLR’s recalls covered enough vehicles to address the safety risk. In late 2022, the company told NHTSA it would launch recalls in the UK and Canada and argued similar measures were unnecessary in the U.S. because the issue was tied to prolonged road salt exposure and unique to those markets, while not disclosing the design change to regulators.

Complaints in the U.S. later mounted. JLR recalled almost 17,000 Range Rovers there in November 2024, again blaming a supplier manufacturing error, and then expanded U.S. recalls in 2025 to more than 120,000 vehicles built between 2014 and 2017, including about 67,000 Range Rover Sports, after NHTSA opened a preliminary probe into cracks in that model.

In a filing to NHTSA, the company also acknowledged an elevated failure rate among Range Rover Sport vehicles in Canada that could not yet be technically explained, while saying there was no evidence of a loss of steering control. Transport Canada says it has no outstanding concerns requiring further action after the expanded recalls, while the DVSA says it will continue to monitor incident reports and relevant information.

The investigation now carries broader operational and financial implications for JLR and its owner Tata Motors. JLR says it has received no reports of accidents, injuries or fires linked to the knuckle issue, but people familiar with the matter say the number of potentially affected vehicles worldwide would rise roughly eightfold to almost 1 million if all model years under scrutiny are ultimately found to be affected.

The added pressure comes as JLR is cutting 10% of its workforce during a restructuring, faces Chinese competitors that are undercutting prices, and continues to recover from last year’s cyber attack that disrupted production for months. In a letter sent last month, NHTSA says it had received 41 reports of cracked steering knuckles involving 2014-2022 Range Rover and Range Rover Sport vehicles and demanded records of incidents, complaints and internal memos, along with details of employees involved with the component or efforts to address its flaw.

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