From crisis to chrysalis, to phoenix from the ashes. The automotive industry is the leading light of British manufacturing, and memories of the sector’s position in 2008 are fading. So perhaps it’s worth recalling that Jaguar Land Rover was seeking government loans that year in order to survive; that General Motors and Chrysler went into bankruptcy protection; that Nissan was cutting hundreds of jobs in Sunderland, despite the plant’s long-held reputation for efficiency; and that the British government was compelled to introduce a scrappage scheme to spur demand for cars.
How times have changed. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has achieved a near-miraculous turnaround, having been sold off by Ford during the financial crisis. JLR has created thousands of jobs, announced plans for a new engine plant, and the Range Rover Evoque is a big hit with motorists. Nissan is to produce the all-electric Leaf at Sunderland and has created a battery plant for the purpose.
Honda recruited 500 workers last year and is ramping up production at Swindon. Vauxhall, part of GM, has confirmed that production of its next-generation Astra will take place at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire. The factory will be the lead plant of two in Europe building the new model. And tier-one suppliers such as Calsonic are investing to meet increased demand.
At last month’s National Automotive Conference in Gaydon, Warwickshire, organised by PE and its sister title Automotive Engineer, Bob Joyce, group engineering director at Jaguar Land Rover, was ebullient. Average cars would mean “bad results for the business,” he said. By contrast, JLR had benefited from a £2 billion investment in products and the mantra had become “more, greater cars – faster”. Sales were up in the key export markets of the US, China, Brazil and Russia, resulting in £1.5 billion profit in 2012.
In 2008-09 – during the height of the financial crisis – JLR had produced 190,000 cars. In 2011-12 output had risen to 290,000. The company’s plants at Halewood and Castle Bromwich were working flat out, and a new engine plant was destined for the West Midlands. But Joyce admitted: “We were a very insular UK business.”
Some people snootily dismissed the takeover by India’s Tata Motors when Ford, desperate for cash, put JLR on the forecourt. But India had represented a “great opportunity” for JLR – and Tata’s ownership brought a pleasing opportunity to work a bit more freely: “They are interested in return on investment, but they do not meddle,” said Joyce. “There’s little bureaucracy, no ‘let’s get the lawyers involved’.”
The challenges that JLR is now facing are common to all British-based carmakers: doing more with less, downsizing engines and powertrains, improving fuel economy while cutting emissions, and working with lighter materials. There will be increasing levels of electrification, said Joyce, but this development will be “measured”. Improvements in battery technology are needed for electric vehicles.
Software engineers will be required in increasing numbers. For instance, 600 engineers were involved in developing the Jaguar XJ’s infotainment system, which is more complex than even the engine management system. Six per cent improvements in fuel economy are aimed for year-on-year. A weight reduction of 100kg could improve fuel economy by 2%, said Joyce.
And then there is the skills challenge: it is necessary to make people aware that careers in engineering are just as rewarding as those in medicine or accountancy. “Engineers have much better career opportunities,” said Joyce. JLR, he said, will continue to grow under Tata’s guidance, but cautiously. “We have to be careful we don’t go into things as a knee-jerk reaction. We don’t have the footprint of a Nissan, or even a BMW,” he said.
Like Jaguar, Aston Martin – another luxury British marque formerly under Ford’s wing – also foresees much growth potential in international markets. Ian Minards, Aston Martin’s head of product development, said the company has dealerships in Mumbai, Sao Paulo, and several in China.
The challenges for Aston Martin are familiar: reduced CO2 footprints for vehicles, downsized engines, and an obsession with lightweighting: “Do we really optimise every last gram? – I don’t think so,” said Minards.
Nissan operates at a different scale and is aiming for an 8% share of the global passenger car market, said Jerry Hardcastle, the company’s chief marketability engineer. A new model is introduced by Nissan every six weeks at its factories around the world.
Hardcastle said Nissan is a “zero-emission leader” and intends to bring 1.5 million electric vehicles to market by 2016, including products from Renault. Developments at Sunderland meant that Nissan had invested more than £400 million for the production of the Leaf electric car and the opening of the battery plant, creating 350 jobs and sustaining a further 1,000 in the supply chain. The Leaf will be built on the line that currently produces the Nissan Qashqai.
Car production at the Sunderland plant has almost doubled since the late 1990s, said Hardcastle: “Without this, cars would be built in India, China or Thailand instead.” Nissan has built Qashqais worth £1.4 million at Sunderland, and engineers from the company’s Russian plants are sent to Britain to learn the secrets of the factory’s success.
Tier-one suppliers such as GKN are benefiting from the automotive industry’s resurgence in the UK. “There is a need to remain competitive and there is always room for improvement,” said Jonathan Beasley, group technology officer of GKN Driveline. The company’s drivetrain products include mechanical drivelines, gear differentials and electrically driven products. Specialist teams integrate these into OEMs’ systems. GKN has more than 40 manufacturing sites.
At the opposite end of the scale, Flybrid began as a two-man operation when founder Jon Hilton was working for the Renault Formula One team. In 2006, F1 rules changed to allow teams to deploy kinetic energy recovery systems. Hilton recalled: “Flavio Briatore, the Renault F1 boss, said, ‘look at this, but don’t spend any money’.” Hilton and his business partner Doug Cross were later made redundant and decided to set up on their own, having developed a mechanical flywheel energy recovery system.
Flybrid proves that it’s possible for a supplier to bring innovative technology to market during difficult times and survive. Flybrid, which is based at Silverstone, was launched in 2007. “We’re privately owned, profitable and debt-free,” said Hilton. His company’s system stores more than 500kJ of energy when spinning at 60,000rpm.
“It’s a much lower risk to bring this to market than you might imagine,” said Hilton. Having said that, he acknowledged that support from the Technology Strategy Board was critical to the company’s success. “We would have gone bust in 2009 – it was really tight before we got our next big OEM,” he said.
One customer is Jaguar, which, flush with success in other areas, is looking at introducing Flybrid’s technology to market in 2016 in volume. As success comes to some areas of the industry, so others get the chance to flourish. Now the challenge will be to ensure that the renaissance is sustainable.