THE PRINCE of Wales saw first hand the latest innovations in electric and autonomous vehicle technology during a visit to the University of Warwick.
The Prince officially opened the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC), based at the university, on Tuesday.
The Prince said: “I hope the centre will continue to inspire the next generation of automotive engineers and researchers to collaborate with manufacturers, suppliers, and of course academia.”
The £150million National Automotive Innovation Centre is billed as one of Europe’s largest automotive research and development facilities. It is a partnership project by Jaguar Land Rover, Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), Tata Motors and the University of Warwick with funding from the government’s Research Partnership Investment Fund, through Research England.
The concept was created by the late Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, founder of WMG, a faculty at the University of Warwick.
It aims to bring together bright minds from industry and academia as a beacon for future mobility and sustainability research and development.
It will create new vehicles and ‘personal mobility solutions’ and aims to deliver the skills required to keep the UK globally competitive.
The 33,000m² centre includes cutting-edge workshops, laboratories, virtual engineering suites and advanced powertrain facilities.
The NAIC is set to help supply the next generation of engineers, designers and researchers.
Earlier in the day the Prince had visited Stratford to see progress on the multi-million pound renovation of the RSC’s costume workshop.
