Coventry - is the UK's 'motor city' still driving forwards?

The last Peugeot to be made at the company's Coventry plant rolled off the production line 10 years ago. It could have been the death knell for the city's automotive industry, but new technology is inspiring confidence once more in the UK's "motor city".

Ten years ago the mood in Coventry was sombre, certainly at the Peugeot plant, near Ryton, where production was ending.

Jim O'Boyle, union convenor and Peugeot worker for 20 years, said he watched the last vehicle coming off the track (production line).

"They were ripping up the track just behind it as the last car came off. It was terrible," he said.

These days he is the cabinet member for jobs and regeneration at the city council: "When I joined (Peugeot) I couldn't imagine ever doing anything else.

"Now I can't believe I was ever there."

Twenty-three years ago the RDM Group, on Humber Road, near Ryton, had a plant harnessing component parts for firms such as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

Now its employees, 80% of whom are engineers, are at the forefront of 21st Century engineering and design - one project, for example, involves creating software to enable cars to park themselves in garages.

The company is currently waiting for the council to agree to a trial, which the government is paying £20m towards, for autonomous vehicles in the city. Smaller trials have already been held down the M1 in Milton Keynes.

"We are looking at how the cars communicate with the pods. For example, you could be travelling along in your Land Rover towards the city centre," marketing director Miles Garner said.

"The computer in the car will communicate with a pod. It will tell the pod it has two guests to pick up - and then your last half mile or so of the journey will be in the pods."

Humber Road, as the name suggests, is the site where the Rootes Group once produced its Humber car.

"It's nice to be leading these technical drives where all the old car manufacturing used to be," he said.

Not all the old car sites are still being used in the automotive trade.

Browns Lane, once home to Jaguar and Daimler and where car production ended in 2004, two years before Ryton closed, is due to become a 24-hour distribution centre for Amazon.

The former Peugeot plant was demolished and the site is now home to various companies and warehouses.

Meanwhile JLR is expected to push ahead with its expansion into electric vehicles with a planned "global centre of excellence" for battery research.

Its Whitley site, two and half miles out of the city and the firm's global headquarters, is already earmarked for expansion but it is expected to need more space, with sites around the city's airport, in Baginton, being looked at.

Last month chief executive Dr Ralf Speth laid out a vision which could see 10,000 new jobs created in the West Midlands. Already the largest carmaker by volume, JLR would like to double production from 500,000 to one million cars a year.

The firm is expected to be working with Warwick Manufacturing Group, which is part of Warwick University, on the edge of the city.

Mr O'Boyle thinks this could bring manufacturing back to Coventry.

"The biggest change is the type of vehicles. Clean-air vehicles and electronic cars, that is a massive opportunity," he said.

"But we need new expertise and we are working with the Warwick Manufacturing Group and Warwick University to get that - that's where the future lies.

"Once the prototype is in place, you get your product in the showrooms, make them affordable and then you need the workforce to build them.

"Jaguar wants to do it in Coventry. We just need the infrastructure in place."

1) Coventry City Council 15,617

2) University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire 6,500

3) University of Warwick 6,000

4) Coventry University 4,600

5) Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust 3,500

6) Jaguar Cars Ltd 2,570

7) Barclays Bank Plc 2,400

=8) Royal Mail Group 2,000

=8 )Severn Trent Laboratories Limited and Severn Trent Centre 2,000

10) Admenta UK Plc (AAH Pharmaceuticals & Lloyds Pharmacy) 1,800

In Ansty, five miles northeast of the city, black cab producer the London Taxi Company is just about to move into its new 50,000 sq ft plant where it will produce its new vehicle, the all electric TX5.

The firm has outgrown its Holyhead Road premises in the city, where it started life in the 1920s producing car bodies for Jaguar, Rolls Royce and Bentley.

It currently employs more than 400 full-time people and company president Peter Johansen says that could go up to 1,600 if a third shift is introduced to produce the cabs. The firm hopes to have the capacity to produce 36,000 vehicles.

In his opinion, Coventry is still the UK's motoring centre, albeit with a larger surrounding area.

"I would actually say Coventry still eclipses all of the country - although you would include the wider area with Birmingham and firms south of Coventry into Warwickshire and along the M40 corridor," he said.

He cited firms such as Ricardo in Leamington Spa, Pro-Drive in Banbury, Aston Martin and other research and development firms in Gaydon plus the Warwick Manufacturing Group, as all contributing heavily to the progress in the automotive industry.

Penso, employing more than 200 people and which has been based at the airport for 12 years, focuses on design and engineering solutions for the automotive industry.

With the Renewable Energy Directive in mind (all EU countries must ensure 10% of transport fuels be renewable by 2020) it works with new technology to reduce waste.

In Coventry Penso has a huge press making carbon fibre components and is notable that it, along with LTC, are the two firms producing London's black cabs (which are also sold all over the world).

The city council's crest features a phoenix rising out of the flames and represents the new Coventry rising out of the old (the city was heavily damaged by German bombers in November 1940).

The motto is apt for the city's industry, sales director Michael Collins said.

"Out of adversity comes dynamic change. It was sad when Ryton closed but I think such things drive innovation."

The city's universities, Coventry and Warwick, lead the way with industrial design and companies like Penso are taking on apprentices to help out with a skills shortage, he added.

"When Ryton closed its doors that was the last of the car production in Coventry," Jim O'Boyle said. "And we had fought to keep it open.

"But now we have the opportunity to skill up the workforce and I think it can be done pretty quickly.

"Cov has the ability to bounce back. We have the high-end jobs, we need to look at getting the semi-skilled.

"I can see Coventry doing very well."