Coventry and Warwickshire will remain “heart” of automotive design

By Nicky Godding

11 February 2019

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Coventry and Warwickshire will remain at the heart of cutting-edge automotive design as the industry moves into the age of electric vehicles.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Champions – a group of around 200 business leaders highlighted the region’s design expertise at a major event held at the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre.

Matthew Beaven, Chief Designer of Exteriors for Jaguar Land Rover and former Coventry University alumni, out-lined his work on the Jaguar I-PACE and emphasised the design heritage of the region and the strength of the area’s two universities.

Les Ratcliffe, Chairman for CW Place Board and former Head of Community Relations for JLR, said that while the global industry might be in-flux, the design expertise of Coventry and Warwickshire would continue to serve it well.

“Manufacturing may be able to move around an increasingly smaller world, but it is clear that many of the thought leaders are bred here and will continue to be based here.”

Dr Lina Huertas of the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre outlined the opportunities provided for apprentices and the key research undertaken at the facility.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.