Productiv Debuts At Uk’s Leading Low Carbon Vehicle Event

A new business established to help industrialise emerging automotive technologies, Productiv Limited, will make its debut at the annual Low Carbon Vehicle event being hosted by Cenex on 7-8 September 2011 at Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby, Northamptonshire. The new business is exhibiting at the event, co-sponsoring the Automotive Council stand and chairing technology presentation sessions.

Helping to make its mark on the industry, Productiv’s chief executive Richard Bruges will be chairing the technology presentations on Wednesday 7 September under the auspices of the Automotive Council, which he serves on the technology working group. The objective of the presentations is to introduce the latest innovations to potential customers; and the most important of these will be advanced engineering teams of vehicle manufacturers including Jaguar Land Rover, BMW and General Motors.

“To give the new technology developers the best chance of successfully presenting their technology we have issued some helpful guidance notes,” says Bruges. “It’s a challenging industry, particularly in terms of the quality, service, price and process standards demanded by today’s leading vehicle manufacturers. So each technology developer needs to make the best of this unique opportunity.”

“The presentations will be akin to being in the Dragon’s Den, but hopefully with a warmer reception,” he added. “Each technology developer has just five minutes to present, which takes at least five hours of presentation and at least five timed practices to get it down to the essential key points. We have recommended using a tried and tested approach called Pecha Kucha, which is widely used for presenting creative ideas.”

Each presentation will describe the technology, explaining what it does, how it works and why it works. It will explain the science behind the technology and the engineering carried out to make it work in the real world. Explaining the benefits is clearly paramount in terms of improved vehicle performance and efficiency, reduced carbon emissions, as well as lower weight and cost.

“Ideally, the new technology developers will explain the problems they can solve for vehicle manufacturers and focus on emissions reduction solutions that are not currently available in the automotive supply chain,” says Bruges. “Also, they need to provide supporting evidence and explain what further development is required to prepare for an application in a vehicle.”

Alongside the vehicle manufacturers, Productiv will be keen to discover what work has already been done to bring the new technologies into production. Also, any commercial developments including the handling of intellectual property rights (IPR) and whether the technology developer wants to sell or licence its IPR or to go into manufacturing. Another key area of interest is the assessment of risks associated with new technology and a new business.

“I’m looking forward to chairing these sessions,” says Bruges. “Discovering new technologies that can solve some of the industry’s most pressing problems is hugely exciting. Learning about these new businesses and what they want to do next, and what support or collaboration or opportunities they’re looking for is what our new business is all about. It is also a key objective of the Automotive Council and an extremely good fit with the Government’s economic growth objectives.”

Productiv, a new business created to take new technology into production, will provide investment, engineering, manufacturing and commercial development support to small and medium sized enterprises, helping to connect technology developers to international vehicle manufacturers and their tier 1 suppliers. The business will enable automotive mass producers to access a wide range of what the Automotive Council has defined as new “sticky technologies” and will focus on credible engineering and low volume production up to 20,000 units annually.

Productiv will help ease the transition to high volume series production by meeting initial low volume requirements; and without vehicle manufacturers having to invest in expensive facilities before they’re ready to ramp up production for full scale manufacturing. It is being supported by the Carbon Trust, MIRA, SMMT and Welsh Automotive Forum. Productiv has three locations including a head office at the new SMMT building in Westminster; an engineering centre at the MIRA Technology Park near Coventry; and a production office at Bridgend in South Wales. For further information please visit Productiv website at www.productivgroup.com

For further information on the Cenex LCV2011 business to business event please visit website at www.lcv2011.co.uk