Auto-industry guru John Ellis presented the last in his series of talks on The History of the Motor Car at our men’s meeting today, focusing this time on on ‘The Fun of Production’.

He began by describing the largest  integrated car manufacturing plant in the world: Hyundai at Ulsan, South Korea.

Although the British car manufacturing industry is now almost entirely foreign owned, vehicles are still manufactured here, mainly by Nissan in Sunderland and BMW in Cowley.  And Britain dominates the design, development and production of F1 racing cars.

John showed a fascinating series of video clips and slides illustrating the enormous level of automation now normal in vehicle production, using massive automatic presses, AI robots and with minimal human oversight.

He concluded with a look into the future of the motor industry. Driven by innovation, the automotive sector constantly invests in new technologies to make vehicles safer, greener, more comfortable, less costly and easier to use. And Britain, with a worldwide reputation as a place to develop new technologies and 22 separate automotive research and development centres, will continue to play a significant role.