The Proving Factory assembly facility in Coventry has been officially opened. The GBP22m facility takes low-carbon vehicle technologies developed by small British companies and university research departments, industrialises them then produces them at ‘proving volumes’ of 10-20,000 units a year.
Once a product is adopted by a carmaker, it puts it into production, and ultimately supports the process of handing it on to higher production volumes in the mainstream automotive supply chain.
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The initiative was launched in February 2013 after receiving funding from the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative (AMSCI). The business is a strategic alliance between Productiv and Tata Steel. Since the launch the partners have been busy building the workforce and facilities needed to develop and manufacture the first technologies.
Engineering and systems assembly operations are located on a 6,000 sq m in Coventry and there is a 1,000sq m component manufacturing factory in South Yorkshire. Fifty workers have been recruited so far but this is expected to increase to 250 over the next four years.
The facility was established to manage the gap in the UK supply chain between small technology developers designing innovative low-carbon automotive technologies and vehicle manufacturers’ need for a route to volume production, to integrate new technologies into their vehicles. Nine technologies have now gone through the development stages, with two due to start production this quarter.
Richard Bruges, chief executive of Productiv, said: “With tight emissions regulations levied on both the UK and the EU, vehicle manufacturers are under increasing pressure to make their products cleaner and more eco efficient than ever before. But we know that there is no one solution to this challenge. We have a team of experts in place who can make an informed decision on which technologies might form a part of a greener automotive industry and the facilities and skills to turn them into products.”
