"Vince Cable announces joint plan with manufacturers to set up research facility to find successor to diesel and petrol engines"

Vince Cable is a deluded old geriatric that believes any cock and bull that manufacturers make up. The only significant advance in engine technology is how to fiddle the CO2 figures further. And half a beelion squid will do nicely Herr Cable!

QUOTE:...""Would you prefer it to be in Brasilia or Chenai instead?""

No, but we have no indigenous motor manufacturers left, they're all foreign-owned, which means that the profits are exported.

I'm also puzzled as to why we need another automotive research facility / organisation when we've already got several world-class ones that involve themselves in exactly the sort of research that's proposed for the new outfit.

It would obviously be better if we still had an indigenous manufacturer. The truth though is we only had one of those in my lifetime, BMC/BL/Rover. Incompetent, class bound and disinterested management aided and abetted by union dullards saw that off. We're better off with Nissan, Honda, Toyota and the rest than we would be without.

You may be in the business in which case you'll know more than me, but the bodies you list such as TRL and MIRA have some overlap with the proposed new body but they're complimentary rather than competitive. Ricardo and Cranfield will, I suspect, be keen to pitch for work offered.