The Proving Factory was a real draw at LCV Cenex 2014
A landmark agreement announced at the Low Carbon Vehicle Event will help develop the cars of the future.
Four technology developers have now appointed The Proving Factory as the production partner for their low-carbon vehicle technologies, with production due to begin in early 2015. The first four companies to sign up are Magnomatics, Evolute Drives, Libralato and Electronica.
Three of these technology developers, Magnomatics, Evolute Drives and Libralato have been working with The Proving Factory since its launch in February 2013. Electronica has now joined them in agreeing a commercial relationship with The Proving Factory that will take them into production.
Richard Bruges, one of The Proving Factory’s founders said: “Since LCV2013 The Proving Factory has quickly evolved from a project and is now open for business. We are delighted to announce that we have been chosen as the production partner of these four innovative low-carbon vehicle technology developers.
Chris Kirby, Managing Director of Magnomatics, said: “Magnomatics originally joined The Proving Factory to meet the medium-volume requirements of automotive customers with its MAGSPLIT power split device. Now, just 18 months on, we have signed up The Proving Factory as our production partner for both the MAGSPLIT product and our PDD commercial wheel motor.
“Over that time the relationship has continued to strengthen and we’ve seen the value The Proving Factory can give us in terms of engineering knowledge and manufacturing techniques. As a result our technologies are much more proven and we are closer to market.”
The Proving Factory is a unique organisation in the automotive sector which de-risks the process of industrialising and manufacturing proving volumes – up to 20,000 units per year – of advanced propulsion technologies for vehicle manufacturers. Supported at the show by the technology developers who are currently working with the business to prepare their low-carbon designs for production, The Proving Factory is demonstrating how it takes a technology from a one-off model to pre-production prototypes and on into production. Pre-production trials of the first technologies will start later this year.
Beginning life as a project responding to a gap in the industry, The Proving Factory has now matured into an established business. Most recently it has bought a factory in Coventry for its assembly operations and invested in advanced machine tools for the component-manufacturing operation in Rotherham. In addition The Proving Factory has already created 42 highly-skilled new jobs, including nine apprentices, with this figure set to rise to 250 by the end of 2017.
