Mahindra to open advanced design facility in the West Midlands
Indian motorcycle giant Mahindra is set to open an advanced design facility in the West Midlands
MOTORCYCLE manufacturing could be returning to England’s very own ‘Motown’, as Mahindra has confirmed it is to open a new high tech design centre in Coventry.
The facility, tagged Mahindra Advanced Design Europe (M.A.D.E), will be a part of the Mahindra Global Design Network that includes the Mahindra Design Studio in Mumbai, India, and Pininfarina Design in Turin, Italy.
The location of the new design centre is no accident, with one of the UK’s best automotive design and engineering universities at the heart of the city. Mahindra has confirmed the centre will fuel the creation of roles drawn from Coventry University, the Royal College of Art, and other design schools across the country.
The creation of M.A.D.E isn’t the first outpost Mahindra has located in the area. Classic Legends, of Jawa fame, is part-owned by Mahindra, and last year announced it would be opening a plant in the area to facilitate BSA’s rebirth with a range of electric motorcycles – and before you get snappy, petrol powered machines are on the cards also!
Speak of the new M.A.D.E centre, Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Mahindra said:
“Mahindra is poised to enter a new, exciting era to build upon our rich 75 years of automotive history to bring unique customer-centric products to the Indian and global markets. A key lever to make the business future-ready is to significantly strengthen design capability across automotive, farm equipment and two-wheelers globally. M.A.D.E will contribute to all future automotive and mobility products, including Born EV SUVs and be a resource available to Mahindra Group companies. It will give us a quantum leap in both capacity and capability in the design space.”
The facility is claimed to be operational in June 2021.
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
