Top officials of the Tata Group joined Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya of the Warwick Manufacturing Group to unveil the foundation stone of a new 150 million-pound National Automotive Innovation Centre in Warwick on Tuesday.
The centre, which will be the largest research centre of its kind in Europe, is funded by Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors, the University of Warwick and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Bhattacharyya was joined at the event by Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Cyrus P Mistry, Chairman of Tata Sons, and Ralf Speth, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover.
Bhattacharyya said: “I want to thank the leadership of Tata. Under both Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry, Tata has been crucial to inspiring investment in British innovation. We are so grateful for your faith, your support and your vision”.
The 33,000 square metre complex will provide space for 1,000 engineers, designers and academics to work together, from apprentices to senior managers. Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Motors will also use the NAIC to take forward autonomous vehicles research through a 19 million-pound Autodrive UK project.
Mistry said: “This unique resource will provide state-of-the-art engineering and technology labs that will greatly enhance the ability of academia and industry to work side by side on leading edge research to deliver exciting new innovative products and meet the widely held ambition to deliver automotive technology and products that will be smarter, lighter, and greener”.
Mistry said: “This unique resource will provide state-of-the-art engineering and technology labs that will greatly enhance the ability of academia and industry to work side by side on leading edge research to deliver exciting new innovative products and meet the widely held ambition to deliver automotive technology and products that will be smarter, lighter, and greener”.
Speth said: “As well as helping Jaguar Land Rover create key technologies that will deliver new experiences for our customers; smarter, safer and more connected cars and a low-carbon future, the centre will deliver wider benefits to the UK automotive industry”.