North East to Become Automotive Powerhouse

It is a huge privilege and honour to have been asked by the North East Automotive Alliance (NEAA) to lead the new Electrified Powertrain Group as has been recently announced. Read the BDaily article here

The NEAA is a trade association representing the Automotive sector in the North East of England. With over 300 members, the NEAA is the largest automotive cluster in the UK. The alliance includes global vehicle and machinery manufacturers such as Nissan, Caterpillar and Komatsu, major Tier 1 suppliers such as ZF, Marelli and Cummins as well as smaller companies like Hyperdrive, AEM and AVID Technology.

As can be seen from the NEAA members, the North East of England has a strong automotive sector and has been at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution having been the European manufacturing location for Nissan’s pioneering Leaf since 2013 and home to the first Gigafactory dedicated to automotive battery production in Europe. The North East has a rich history of electric machines and power electronics research and development stretching back over many years.

The purpose of the NEAA Electrified Powertrain Technology Group is to strengthen the North East's manufacturing and research activity in electrified powertrain components and systems. We are doing this to increase investment, activity and collaboration within existing NEAA members and attract new powertrain electrification businesses and investments to the region. To deliver more and better jobs and opportunities in the regional economy.

Our mission is to:

• Promote the NE as key region for manufacturing of Electrification technologies
• Raise the profile of the region and its capabilities within the UK and internationally both with government and automotive OEMs and Supply Chain
• Maximise synergies and funding by creating collaborative R, D & I projects which are more attractive to public and private sector investment
• Maximise the benefits to the region of the Driving the Electric Revolution (DER) programme and DER Centre NE
• Identify opportunities to exploit our automotive electrification capabilities and seek opportunities in other sectors
• Attract public and private investment to the region to support building and scaling-up of manufacturing, research and development excellence within the region for electrified powertrain components
• Align with national and regional priorities and leverage support from the public sector

I am very excited about working with the NEAA team and other stakeholders to deliver on this huge opportunity for the region. The global importance of clean air and combatting climate change will lead to further rapid growth in electrified vehicles over the coming years.

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