The innovative Proving Factory reached two major milestones in its journey with the manufacture of the first components and the announcement of two new sites for assembly and manufacturing operations.
A GBP 22M manufacturing initiative in the UK’s South Yorkshire and Midlands regions, The Proving Factory will take low-carbon vehicle technologies designed by small high-tech British companies and university research departments and produce them at ‘proving volumes’ of 10,000–20,000 units a year. It will then support them in moving to higher volumes through the traditional first-tier supply chain.
The Proving Factory is drawing on the skills and expertise of its two main partners, Productiv and Tata Steel, in the development of its two facilities. Productiv has invested GBP 3M in a 6,000m2 factory in Coventry where the assembly operation will be located, while Tata Steel has signed a contract to lease a 1,000m2 engineering facility in South Yorkshire to house state-of-the-art machine tools due to be installed and commissioned by the end of July for The Proving Factory’s component manufacturing operation. In-house pre-production trials are expected to commence in August 2014, with production of the first advanced technologies to begin in January 2015.
