The Business Magazine March 2024

Community and collaboration: How Bicester Motion is reshaping the future of business

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Home to specialist businesses that operate within complementary industries and housed on a unique site with more than 100,000 visitors per year, enterprises of all types are fast realising the benefits of Bicester Motion.

For the uninitiated, Bicester Motion is a 444-acre former Royal Air Force WW2 Bomber Training Station that’s currently undergoing a transformation into a hub for the past, present and future of mobility. Divided into different quarters, the success of the site is in its curated community, an aspect that will continue to develop as Bicester Motion grows with the delivery of its so-called masterplan.

These quarters, the first of which is known as Bicester Heritage, are designed to be enjoyed by visitors and businesses alike, operating as a Centre of Excellence for brands, skills, engineering, experience and products, speaking to an audience of visitors that Bicester Motion expects to top 1,000,000 a year by the end of the decade.

2022-04-23_24 – BH – Scramble – Preview-55 Beginning with Bicester Heritage was a simple decision for the Bicester Motion team– after all, the site is replete with heritage atmosphere, whether it’s the preserved and restored historic buildings on this ex-RAF Technical Site or the 47 specialist businesses that inhabit the world’s largest cluster of historic motoring enterprises. As an entity, Bicester Heritage’s remit is to secure a viable future for the classic automotive industry whilst providing enthusiasts with a one stop shop in which to indulge their motoring passion.

Less than a decade after it opened, Bicester Heritage is now considered to be the home of historic motoring enterprise in the UK, a social and professional hub now home to the likes of the head offices of Singer Vehicle Design, Motorsport UK, The Little Car Company and Morgan Motor Company.

Many have experienced exponential growth as visitors attend quarterly open day events at the campus. And countless partnerships between the site’s tenants have blossomed, as the tightknit community leverages their joint strengths to offer more robust offerings to their customers.

Construction and delivery of ‘The Command Works’ in 2020 – the first significant new-build construction in eighty years at the location, continues to attract pioneering new businesses, both in the classic car industry and modern automotive sector. This shift highlights how future-gazing businesses are realising that the inspiration of the past carries potential for the future, not to mention the opportunities for exchange and collaboration in a location unlike any other in the UK.

Within the next seven years, Bicester Motion will have completed three new quarters at its site, building on the success of Bicester Heritage and shaping Bicester Motion as a must visit destination.

The Experience Quarter is the latest to be awarded a positive planning determination as a strategic development site for heritage tourism uses, leisure, recreation, employment and community uses, by Cherwell District Council in January of this year. The Quarter will house a collection of automotive, aviation and cycling brands, able to deliver an entirely new experience for their customers, allowing them to immerse themselves in a branded environment.

In addition to Experience, Bicester Motion is spearheading the delivery of The Innovation Quarter.

Offering a hub completely dedicated to future-gazing businesses with a focus on training, technology design, development and engineering, within a campus designed to incubate the latest technology from a selection of the world’s most innovative businesses. Set over six new high-spec buildings, opportunities abound for ‘market disruptors' within E-mobility, such as electric vehicle manufacturers – or those that design and build their key components, platforms, autonomous technology, electric flight pioneers, and more.

Innovation exists for these forward-thinking businesses to grow exponentially, providing a space in which to exchange ideas and push new limits in a market that embraces disruption and change. Certainly, as transport begins to become smarter, with connectivity and options for autonomy now shaping the future of the UK road network and beyond, Innovation will serve as the ideal home for industry leaders looking to both create solutions and shape the talent of the future.