Ahead of the ACEA Liaison Committee next week, SMMT is showing a selection of UK-built cars which demonstrate the diversity of the country’s automotive industry. Held at SMMT’s Westminster headquarters, the display features vehicles from Honda, Nissan and Rolls-Royce.
The ACEA Liaison Committee sees top officials from automotive trade associations across Europe join together to discuss the issues affecting the industry. Meeting each quarter, the Liaison Committee visits a different nation for each event, with SMMT playing host on Friday 20 June.
Representing the UK’s rising prominence in advanced propulsion technologies is Nissan’s pure-electric LEAF. Developed at the Nissan Technical Centre in Bedfordshire, the LEAF was the first 100% electric car to enter large-scale production. Both the car and its batteries are produced at the company’s facility in Sunderland alongside the Nissan Juke, Qashqai and Note. Nissan Sunderland produces over 500,000 vehicles a year.
Honda’s Civic not only shows the UK’s talent for volume manufacturing, it also highlights its on-track prowess. Honda produces around 150,000 examples of the Civic, Civic Tourer, CR-V and Jazz at its facility in Swindon, as well as a similar number of engines.
The Honda Civic on display at SMMT is the manufacturer’s 2013 British Touring Car Championship car. Developed in conjunction with Team Dynamics – known as Honda Yuasa Racing – the Civic has won every BTCC title since 2011, winning 42 races in three years.
Rolls-Royce represents the UK’s thriving specialist and niche manufacturers with the magnificent Wraith grand-tourer. Since 1906 Rolls-Royce has been synonymous with the highest in automotive luxury. Rolls-Royce’s manufacturing facility, which is nestled in the Goodwood estate in West Sussex, produces all of the vehicles that it sells globally. More than 3,200 vehicles were built in 2013, with further growth expected in 2014.
Thanks to intensive hand-craftsmanship and a level of personalisation unseen on most cars, each Rolls-Royce can take more than 500 hours to produce.
To find out more about the diversity of the UK automotive industry, see SMMT’s Motor Industry Facts guide.