1. Why did you want to be in the automotive business?I was enamored with cars from an early age. One of my first memories was a red Countach LP400S at the Birmingham Motor Show in 1978, that shaped me I think. My Father was also a great inspiration. We lived in Coventry, the most industrious of the English cities during the first half of the century. It was mostly destroyed during the second world war, but the memories lived on. My Father would show us great books about the vehicles that were produced in Coventry, from the airplanes to the cars, motorbikes and buses, all which reflected an amazing understanding of both manufacturing knowledge and business operations. To think what they created with their limited tools and communications really inspired me. We really have no excuses to not be continuing this work today, especially with our marvelous assortment of modern engineering and manufacturing tools.
Fundamentally, it was to educate the people outside of the concept car world about the development techniques we had discovered. That is, over the course of the nine years I worked for the industry I saw the level of computer involvement go from useless CAD systems and high rework to unbelievably powerful CAD systems and entire vehicles being engineered in six weeks from scratch. This speed was necessary as we had up to 20 cars to engineer per year, and a working season of about 8 months.
2. Why did you start Motive Industries?
We also had to be very ingenious about how we tooled and assembled these vehicles as profit margins were low and labour costs were high. During this time we also saw the birth of rapid prototyping machines, cheap cnc routers, advanced casting and composite materials and extremely accurate analysis software. These were tools we embraced in the concept car industry as ways to lessen our costs and speed development and manufacturing time, but over the course of many projects I began to realise these techniques were scalable and could be applied to low and medium volume production vehicles. These vehicles would be advanced design, lightweight and electric driven. Also, relatively inexpensive to develop and tool so could be sold in smaller numbers while providing a genuine profit for the manufacturer. I saw this as a means to achieve a paradigm shift in the industry, a shift that is needed today more than ever.
Well, this huge gluttony of vehicles that have been recklessly produced during the last decade will surely still be around in some significant number. During the last 10 years the market has been flooded with vehicles to the point where there are more registered cars in north America today than licensed drivers - and that's not counting all the unsold vehicles. These modern vehicles will last easily another 15 years, so basically the large car makers have saturated their own markets to the point of collapse. Therefore, the only vehicles that will be sold in the near future will have to be different enough from the current breed to warrant an emotional purchase.
3. What do you think the Automotive Industry will look like in 15 years?
As advanced engineering software becomes more mainstream and materials continue to improve, the technical challenges facing developing and certifying a production vehicle will become much simpler to overcome, allowing smaller companies to operate in the sector. These companies will be intelligent, well organised and quickly adaptable. They will produce vehicles closer to the concept cars of today than the production cars of today, beautifully designed and cleverly engineered. These vehicles will also be built in smaller numbers from cheaper tooling, represent a profitable business model and will allow the rapid evolution of the automobile well into the future.
