UK AUTO SECTOR
Car maker to the world
ALTHOUGH THE UK was the first of the
world’s major automotive centres to lose its
national champion volume manufacturer with
the death of Rover, the industry is, in fact,
healthier than ever.
26
More than 1.7 million vehicles were made in
the UK last year — almost the same as the
all-time peak of 1972 — and a record number,
1.3 million, were exported. Clearly, the global
automotive sector still thinks the UK is a good
place to make cars, despite high relative labour
costs. Why do Nissan, Honda, Toyota, GM, and
BMW choose to build cars here? And, with the
overwhelmingly global nature of the automo-
tive industry, does it matter that we do not
have a home-grown player any more?
‘We have a motor industry in Britain, but
not a British motor industry,’ said Cardiff
Business School’s Prof Garel Rhys. He dates
the resurgence of car manufacturing in the UK
back to the 1980s, citing ‘the changes that
emanated from the Thatcher years, when
strikes disappeared and the industry
discovered quality and how to maintain it’.
He also pointed out that the auto sector in
the UK is one of the most versatile in the world.
‘Along with Germany, we are the only country
to have a major specialist and a major
mass-produced sector. We make volume cars;
then we have Land Rover and Mini, which are
volume specialists; Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce
and Bentley, they’re specialists, along with
Morgan, Lotus and LTI, and Triumph, in the
related superbike sector.’
France, the US, Italy and Japan have tried
and failed to develop this range, he said.
‘Despite our smaller scale, we have to
HYDROGEN MAKES PERKY PERFORMER
FROM BIOFUELS to hybrids and fully-electric vehicles, there are many routes to
greener motoring and all will appear in greater numbers over the coming years.
But for true zero-emissions motoring, with vehicles capable of the
performance we expect from petrol and diesel engines, most experts agree one
candidate is more promising than all the others — the hydrogen fuel-cell.
The sticking point is the infrastructure. While biofuels can already be found
on some garage forecourts, and electric cars can be plugged into the wall, the
question of how to roll out a hydrogen infrastructure is more complex.
In a UK-led effort to solve this, fuel-cell specialist ITM Power last month
joined Brentwood-based powertrain developer Roush Technologies on a project
designed to stimulate the uptake of hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles.
‘There’s a general acceptance that in the early stages of the technology it will be
attractive for logistical and support reasons on fleets of vehicles which return to
the same depot every night,’ said Roush’s Adrian Graves.
ITM is developing an electrolyser system that can be used by organisations
Mini Cooper: the UK auto sector is one of the most versatile with both volume and specialist production
remember that we can cover all the bases: even
vans, heavy trucks, buses, components and
especially R&D. We have a motor industry that
can go straight from R&D into design and
manufacture, and then to sales with a very
high-quality distribution network.’
Volume makers have been taking
advantage of this range. The latest
addition to Nissan’s range, the compact
SUV Qashqai model, is an entirely UK
product, designed at the company’s
Technical Centre Europe in Cranfield, styled at
Nissan Design Europe in London, and built at
the NMUK plant in Sunderland.
Rhys describes the UK’s design expertise
and university courses, along with the
world-leading UK-based motorsport centre, as
the country’s ‘Silicon Valley’, and the talent
that emanates from it is so in demand
from car companies around the world
that there is no danger of British
engineering flair being lost, even without a
British volume champion.
‘Even if things turn turtle on the
manufacturing side — and I hope it never
happens and I don’t think it will — the design
houses, component manufacturing and
education could form a standalone sector in
their own right, a Silicon Valley for the whole
global industry,’ he said.
to generate hydrogen, while Roush is investigating how this system could be
applied to fleets of vehicles, and what modifications would need to made to a
vehicle’s engine and powertrain. Graves confirmed they are also working with an
unnamed global manufacturer of commercial vehicles that has a facility in Essex
(Ford’s Dagenham plant would seem to fit the bill).
Meanwhile, Hugo Spowers, the automotive engineer behind Morgan’s
hydrogen-fuelled LifeCar (The Engineer, 10 March) believes fuel-cell vehicles will
take off as urban vehicles. Through the HYRBAN project, Spowers is working with
a loose alliance of motorsport engineers to develop a two-seater urban fuel-cell
car that he hopes could kick-start this revolution. The powertrain for the vehicle
is being tested at Cranfield University and, with a lightweight composite chassis,
will be assembled into the vehicle this summer. Spowers believes the vehicle’s
perky performance will make it more attractive than existing low-emissions urban
vehicles. ‘It will have a cruise speed and a top speed of 50mph. It will get there
very quickly and stay there and will accelerate to 30mph in 5.5 seconds.’
the EnGIneeR 21 APRIL–4 MAY 2008
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