Gordon Murray Design Wins
SMMT 2010 Innovation Award

24th November 2010 - Gordon Murray Design’s iStream® Manufacturing Process has won the SMMT 2010 Automotive Innovation Award.

This prestigious award, from one of the UK’s largest and most influential trade associations, was launched in September to encourage the creation and development of new innovative products, technologies and ideas that could change the face of the UK automotive industry, as well as to recognise existing products which have already contributed to automotive excellence.

Judged by a panel of industry experts, including Dave Salt, chief engineer, GKN Driveline, Dr George Gillespie, chief executive officer, MIRA, Joe Greenwell, chairman, Ford of Britain and president, SMMT, Paul Everitt, chief executive, SMMT and Simon Lewis, motoring editor, Mail on Sunday Live magazine, Gordon Murray Design was announced as the winner at SMMT’s Annual Dinner last night.

Professor Gordon Murray, CEO & Technical Director of Gordon Murray Design said of the award...

“It is a great honour for the team at Gordon Murray Design to receive the SMMT Innovation Award for our iStream technology.  For me personally, the most important message is the recognition that we need innovation in both technical and business sectors to help the UK take the lead in the new ‘green’ industrial revolution that is taking place in the automotive industry.

Weight reduction is the single most powerful tool in our industry’s armoury and iStream delivers lightweight with high levels of safety – it brings Formula One technology within reach of the every day motorist”.

Gordon Murray Design was established in 2007 to develop an innovative and disruptive automotive manufacturing technology trademarked iStream® - a complete rethink and redesign of the traditional manufacturing process which has the potential to be the biggest revolution in high volume manufacture since the Model T Ford.

The design and prototyping of Gordon Murray Design’s T.25 city car was central to both the development and validation of iStream® and represents a major breakthrough in city car design in the areas of weight, footprint, safety, usability and efficiency.  Whilst applying a holistic and fit for purpose approach to the design and development of the T.25, Gordon Murray Design has taken the opportunity to incorporate solutions to multiple urban mobility problems.

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For media enquiries contact:
Tiffany Hutt, Gordon Murray Design Limited
enquiries@gordonmurraydesign.com

Editor’s Notes:

1. Gordon Murray Design Limited is a British company operating from Shalford in Surrey. The Company aims to be the world leader in automotive design and reverses the current industry trend for sub-contracting by having a complete in-house capability for design, prototyping and development. The Company is compact and focused and undertakes automotive and other engineering programmes in an efficient and innovative way. For more information please visit www.gordonmurraydesign.com
2. The iStream® assembly process is a complete rethink and redesign of the traditional automotive manufacturing process and could potentially be the biggest revolution in high volume manufacture since the Model T. Development of the process began over 15 years ago and it has already won the prestigious 2008 ‘Idea of the Year’ award from Autocar who were given privileged access in order to make their assessment. The simplified assembly process means that the manufacturing plant can be designed to be 20% of the size of a conventional factory. This could reduce capital investment in the assembly plant by approximately 80%. Yet the flexibility of this assembly process means that the same factory could be used to manufacture different variants. The iStream® design process is a complete re-think on high volume materials, as well as the manufacturing process and will lead to a significant reduction in full lifecycle CO2.
3. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) is one of the largest and most influential trade associations in the UK. It supports the interests of the UK automotive industry at home and abroad, promoting a united position to government, stakeholders and the media.  The automotive industry is a vital part of the UK economy with £40 billion turnover and £8.5 billion value added. With over 700,000 jobs dependent on the industry, it accounts for 9% of total UK exports and invests £1 billion each year in R&D. In the last ten years, huge strides have been made to reduce the environmental impact of its products throughout the life cycle.  Improvements in production processes mean energy used to produce vehicles is down 28%, water use is down 34% and 73% less waste enters landfill sites. Average new car tailpipe CO2 emissions have also been slashed and are down 17% compared to 2000 levels.  For more details, download SMMT’s 11th annual Sustainability Report or Motor Industry Facts from the SMMT website.