Ratan Tata inaugurates new automotive innovation centre in UK

Tata Group Chairman Emeritus, Ratan Tata, along with his successor Cyrus P Mistry laid the foundation stone of the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC) in UK. Planned as the largest research facility of its kind in Europe, the centre will cater to create next generation of vehicles for the global market. This automotive innovation centre will be built with an investment of approximately Rs 1,400 crore, and will be operational at the University of Warwick campus in Coventry by 2017.

This centre is funded by Tata Motors and its UK firm Jaguar Land Rover, the University of Warwick and the UK Government’s Higher Education Funding Council for England. The new facility will sprawl a good 33,000 sq mt and will provide space for 1,000 engineers, designers and academics to work together.

The new high-tech research facilities at the NAIC will include a design and simulation space creating innovative automotive solutions. It will also house the world's most adaptable and advanced fully immersive drive-in car simulator.

JLR and Tata Motors will also use the centre to take forward autonomous driverless vehicles research through the Rs 176 crore Autodrive UK project.

This new centre will help JLR co-locate 600 of its engineers, researchers and technologists to work collaboratively with academics and R&D specialists from across the automotive supply chain.

This new facility will also complement its other UK-based product research and development centres in Gaydon and Whitley, both near Coventry.