Gordon Murray Design (GMD) has announced that its licenses are now officially ‘on sale’ with the T.25 City Car and licenses for the firm’s new iStream manufacturing process.
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The firm’s business plane – set up by iconic Formula One designer Gordon Murray – can be likened to Dolby, the audio technology company, according to the US west coast venture capitalists backing the British start-up.
“The closest thing that I can think of what we’ve got with Gordon Murray Design is how Dolby has developed over the years into a global technology brand,” said Jonathan Feiber, general partner of Silicon Valley investor Mohr Davidow Ventures.
Dolby doesn’t make products, instead licensing its technology to manufacturers, something that Gordon Murray Design (GMD) is expected to do with car technology that it invents.
The T.25 is described as a radical, innovative design for a new type and class of personal transport vehicle that offers solutions to reduce congestion and parking problems whilst addressing the issue of full lifecycle CO2 damage. It is designed and packaged to protect mobility, personal freedom and driving ‘fun’ whilst greatly reducing the environmental damage from vehicle manufacturing.
The iStream assembly process is described by the firm as a complete rethink and redesign of the traditional manufacturing process and could potentially be the biggest revolution in high volume manufacture since the Model T, it says.
Development of the process began over 15 years ago and it has already won the prestigious 2008 ‘Idea of the Year’ award from Autocar who were given privileged access in order to make their assessment.
GMD says that the simplified assembly process means that the manufacturing plant can be designed to be 20% of the size of a conventional factory. This could reduce capital investment in the assembly plant by approximately 80%. Yet the flexibility of this assembly process means that the same factory could be used to manufacture different variants.
It also says the iStream design process is a complete re-think on high volume materials, as well as the manufacturing process and will lead to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions over the lifecycle of the vehicles produced using it, compared with conventional ones. The design process has therefore been built around the mantra of ‘Think Light’ and all materials for each variant are carefully selected to be as light as possible whilst being ‘fit for purpose.’
The firm claims that the T.25 architecture, packaging, materials selection and manufacturing process promises to be the biggest revolution in the mass production of cars in the last 100 years.
Whilst the T.25 is only officially on sale this month, Gordon Murray Design says it has already been approached by 15 potential clients based in 12 different countries.
Gordon Murray says: “This is an idea that began in 1993 and, with the hard work of the team and help from our investors, it’s great to finally see it coming to fruition. I believe the timing is perfect given the current situation within the automotive industry.”
See also: UK: Design consultancy attracts US venture capitalist
