‘There is a growing demand for cars, not a diminishing one, and over the next 20 years more new cars will be made than in the entire 110 years of the industry to date. There will be a need for 180 new car plants, typically making 330,000 cars annually and plants will need investment likely to exceed $80 Trillion.’ said Welsh Automotive Forum chairman Prof Garel Rhys during a NEAC conference in Wales last month.

The Network of European Automotive Competence (NEAC) is a 3-year European Union Interreg IIIC Programme project. It has 10 EU partner regions plus the Region of Samara, Russia.  Lead partner for the West Midlands is Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. AWM’s contribution to this project was €80 000 and it was money very well spent.

NEAC has been working with other EU networks such as the Automotive Regions and BeLCAR - to name a few. Together they created the European Automotive Strategy Network (EASN) to assess, assist, improve and promote component suppliers in member states. In-depth research of eleven key automotive regions in Europe, carried on under umbrella of NEAC, looked at regional financial support, projections for the future, workflow and future scenarios. The study showed variations in assistance, abilities and opportunities which will now be taken up by the EASN. NEAC partners have produced also a “live” map of the regions to help future investors and researchers.

One of the leading strategy developers behind EASN, Kishor Pala, of Advantage West Midlands Accelerate programme, said there were expected to be 50 partners from 13 member states. EASN wants to encourage collaboration among regional, national and European Commission policy makers and contribute to the development and design of stable instruments or funding for the automotive industry. The work to date had identified a need to improve skills, assist clusters and work on alternative fuel and power train development.