- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
The West Midlands region of Britain, the focal point of an automotive industry that had once generated a million jobs, is lobbying India’s Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. industrial conglomerate to set up a motorcycle factory in the area as mayor Andy Street eyes restoration of its manufacturing clout, Bloomberg reported.
Street, the former chief of retailer John Lewis Plc, is after the Indian company as part of an effort to attract auto manufacturers with incentives while promoting the expertise of a wider Midlands area which still houses more than 400 specialist firms, including Ashton Martin and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which is owned by India.
The Bloomberg report added that Mahindra already has an automotive research unit near Coventry, thanks to the revival of the BSA motorcycle brand, which has remained dormant since the early 1970s, through its first motorcycle model 650cc Gold Star, which is scheduled to be built only in India at the moment.
“Mahindra have committed to R&D at the moment. I am hoping we will persuade them to commit to be doing manufacturing,” Street, a Conservative who was elected the first West Midlands mayor in 2017, was quoted as saying.
Besides, Street is also trying to get JLR, the UK’s largest carmaker which is controlled by India’s Tata Motors Ltd., to commit to manufacturing batteries at West Midlands Gigafactory, a Coventry airport site, Bloomberg added.
Street, who has backed Liz Truss as the next prime minister, said he would ask the next premier to raise support for the automotive industry, including funding for suppliers shifting to electric vehicles and setting up charging infrastructure.
The British motorcycle industry is seeing a revival of classic brands, a number of which are owned by Indian companies, the Bloomberg report added.
In 2020, Chennai-based TVS Motor Co. bought Norton Motorcycles and has a manufacturing facility in Solihull, with plans for a range of British-built electric bikes.
Besides, Royal Enfield is owned by India’s Eicher Motors Ltd. and has a technical centre in Leicestershire in the East Midlands.
