The motor industry in the UK’s West Midlands is gearing up for a big year in 2005, according to industry expert Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, who founded the Warwick Manufacturing Group, based at Warwick University, 25 years ago.
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The downsizing of Jaguar’s operations at Coventry’s Browns Lane plant [announced last September] put the industry in the news for all the wrong reasons, but Lord Bhattacharyya told local newspaper, the Coventry Evening Telegraph, that there is room for optimism.
“While Jaguar and Land Rover have had to take some tough decisions, I think that last year will be seen as an important milestone towards a brighter future for the motoring industry in Coventry and Warwickshire. Peugeot produced its millionth 206 in February. It is set to produce 200,000 cars for the second year running with more than half the production going for export,” he told the paper.
“And recently Jaguar, Land Rover, and most importantly for this region, Aston Martin, have won a string of awards for their products, ” he added.
Lord Bhattacharyya told the Coventry Evening Telegraph that the trump card which the West Midlands holds is its “intellectual horsepower”.
He reportedly said: “Organisations such as the International Automotive Research centre at Warwick, good work being done at Coventry University, and excellent consultancies in Motor Industry Research Association in Nuneaton provide intellectual horsepower.”
