Land Rover is understood to have been forced to make 200 workers redundant and cut Freelander production because of a shortage of engines.

The cuts are due to BMW's inability to supply more diesel engines to meet demand and as such Freelander production will have to be cut by 12% to 74,000 vehicles.

Freelander production is expected to go from three-shifts to two and Land Rover hopes the reduction in the Solihull workforce can come through voluntary redundancies.

Ford bought Land Rover from BMW last year when it sold off parts of the struggling Rover Group.

A spokesman for BMW, which has an engine-supply contract with Ford, told AM-online: "We agreed to supply a certain number of engines and we have done that and will continue to. But we don't have the capacity to supply anymore."

BMW says its Hams Hall plant, which formally opened yesterday, will free up capacity at its Steyr plant in Austria that could in time meet the shortfall in engines.