Collaborating Automotive Regions (CAR)

Mission:

To promote, protect and strengthen the competitiveness and long term sustainability of West Midlands Automotive SMEs to benefit the industry both regionally and at European level.

The “UK Automotive Industry 2020” report states that, “only by working together can a sustainable future for the UK automotive industry be achieved”.

Vehicle manufacturers and Tier 1 component supplying companies are well represented in existing UK and EU structures, for example SMMT, CLEPA and ACEA. There is, however, no equivalent representation for Tier 2 companies and their suppliers.

The European Commission -backed report CARS21 states that “collaborative partnerships” involving stakeholders at regional, national and EU level should be formed to “enhance the competitiveness of the industry through EU supported R&D efforts”.

The CAR project has been devised to stimulate communication, cooperation and engagement between Tier 2 SMEs regionally, nationally and within the EU, creating a network of collaborative partnerships and improving the competitiveness of the European automotive industry.

Aims:

-Create clear communication channels between Tier 2 companies and Tier 1s, VMs and OEMs through the creation of a representative Tier 2 group that can proactively influence and develop relationships with T1 companies and trade bodies.

-Create a strategy document defining the engagement mechanism between T2 and T1 companies and VMs

-Promote the development of skills and innovation capacity and market awareness within Tier 2 companies

Objectives:

-Develop strong links with regional, national and EU level automotive clusters, communicating information and opportunities identified back to regional players

-Form a core CAR network of exemplar EU automotive regions that cooperate at interregional level to improve the competitiveness and long term sustainability of the automotive industry in the West Midlands and ultimately the EU.

Outputs:

-Coordinate and deliver study visits for West Midlands automotive SMEs to visit other EU regions and countries

-Implement 3 Best practices in the West Midlands

-Form an SME automotive network

 Go to study visit list

 For more information please contact Nathalie Maddocks.