New automotive innovation and growth team
The industry-led NAIGT chaired by Richard Parry-Jones published its report setting out its 20 year vision for the automotive industry and its recommendations to Government and industry to achieve this. This was accompanied by a study of the Competitive Status of the UK Automotive Industry.
Key among these recommendations are proposals to:
Establish a joint industry/government Automotive Council to develop, guide and implement a long term strategic framework for the industry; and
Focus the UK R&D agenda around a new industry-consensus technology roadmap, and as part of this establish 'Test Bed UK' a bold, large scale pilot to develop, demonstrate and build the new low-carbon personal transportation system including its infrastructure
Supporting these two key areas of work are a series of recommendations focused on:
Creating a transformed business environment in the UK to provide a more compelling investment proposition versus other countries;
Agreeing on the technology roadmaps for low carbon vehicles and fuels and exploiting opportunities to promote the UK as a strong candidate to develop these and other technologies; and
Developing a stronger and more competitive supply chain through joint research on focussed areas, skills development and the enhancement and brokering of collaboration opportunities for achieving effective scale in R&D and core technology components
The NAIGT vision for the automotive industry in the UK is:
“A competitive, growing, and dynamic industry making a large and increasing contribution to employment and prosperity in the UK, and playing a decisive global role in developing and manufacturing exciting, low carbon vehicle transportation solutions”
Further background and detail on all the NAIGT recommendations can be found in the final report.
Next Steps
The Government, led by BERR’s Automotive Unit will consider the NAIGT recommendations for action and will respond in a Government response in the summer.
Background
The New Automotive Innovation and Growth Team (NAIGT) was launched in April 2008 to facilitate the development of a collective strategic view from the automotive industry on the innovation and growth challenges that it faces in the period to 2025. It was an industry-led project facilitated by the Automotive Unit (AU) within the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). The NAIGT’s work was being delivered through an industry led Steering Group of senior industrialists, academics and financial analysts experienced in the automotive sector. The Group met between May 2008 and April 2009 and was chaired by Richard Parry-Jones (former Group Vice President and CTO, Ford).
Over the last 12 months the areas and issues considered by the NAIGT included: Supply Chain Development; Technology and Low Carbon Product Development; Technology and Low Carbon Infrastructure; Business Environment; and Key Performance Indicators.
All references to BERR in this section of the web site relate to activities pre-dating the Departments change of name: as of June 2009, BERR is the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
