SMMT News

Celebration and innovation themes of 2014 International Automotive Summit Report

23 July 2014 #SMMT News

SMMT has published the 2014 International Automotive Summit post-event report. The event, which was held on 11 June at Canary Wharf, celebrated the recent successes of the automotive sector – including 27 consecutive months of growth (at the time of the event) and a doubling of UK export value – and explored the challenges that the industry likely to face in the future.

The sixth annual Summit featured keynote speeches from Jaguar Land Rover’s Director of Purchasing, Ian Harnett, and CEO of the Automotive Investment Organisation, Joe Greenwell. Following this, delegates attended work streams on innovation and consumers were held.

Led by Autocar Brand Editor, Chas Hallett, the first innovation stream looked at varying approaches to advanced propulsion. Kevin E Layden, Global Director of Powertrain Engineering, Ford Motor Company and Frank Meijer, Head of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle at Hyundai Motor Europe discussed their companies’ approaches to new technology.

This was followed by a focus on bringing new technologies to the mass market, with input from the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s Technical Specialist, Jon Beasley, CEO of Productiv, Richard Bruges, YASA Motors’ CTO, Dr Tim Woolmer and KPMG’s UK Head of Automotive, John Leech.

The consumer stream examined the ways in which consumers’ relationship with change with the automotive industry in the coming years as a result of new technology. The discussion was driven by Audi’s Head of Marketing, Nick Ratcliffe, Tesla’s UK and Ireland Country Director, Georg Ell, Microsoft’s Head of Automotive, Ian Webber and The British Screen Advisory Council’s Chairman, Adam Singer.

Click through to read the full report.

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