UK - The Swedish start-up has revealed its intension to build a "pilot production plant" at Silverstone Park in the UK. It will be used to make the Uniti One - a small pure electric car designed for city driving.
"The UK’s approach to vehicle production, with its focus on light-weighting and innovation in advanced materials, is an ideal model for electric car production globally," commented Lewis Horne, Uniti's CEO. "It’s no secret that some of the world’s best vehicle engineers are clustered around Silverstone. When coupled with a government receptive to our ambition and goals, we couldn’t find a better home to establish our pilot production facility."
Uniti hopes to unveil production-ready models in late 2019. The plant, which will act as a 'blueprint' for digitalisation in vehicle production 'throughout the world', will be fully operational around the same time.
The news comes shortly after Dyson, the vacuum specialist, announced that it would make its first EV in Singapore. This decision was criticised by many industry onlookers who expected the plant to be built near Dyson's research and development centre in the UK.
Various other companies that have vehicle manufacturing facilities in the UK have voiced concern over the outcome of Brexit. Ford has reportedly shut its Bridgend plant for five days, according to the GMB union, after Steven Armstrong, the company's group vice president and president of Europe, Middle East and Africa, told the BBC that a no-deal Brexit would "force us to have to think about what our future strategy for the UK would be."
