Coventry Automotive Industry

By Cory Mosey

Year 10 pupil from Grace Academy Coventry

Coventry was the centre of production in the automotive industry pre-World War II (WW2), mainly because of the famous car brands which have been manufactured here by our skilled workers, such as Jaguar, Triumph and Rover, amongst many others. Many car names still have factories and offices in Coventry, such as, Peugeot and Jaguar but the destruction of WW2 changed this for Coventry and major factories and companies moved to different towns and countries rather than the facing the cost to rebuild the factories.
In 1885, two Germans, Sieg Bettman and Mortiz Shulte founded a company called Bettman & Co, selling Triumph bicycles from London. In 1889, they moved to Coventry and in 1907, the company expanded into a new factory in Priory Street, taking over the premises of a spinning mill. The government also wanted Triumph vehicles and ordered many 550cc Model H from Triumph, which then led in 1918 to Triumph becoming one of Britain's biggest motor cycle makers. In 1930, the name changed to the Triumph Motor Company, but hit financial problems in the 1930's depression. Triumph was subsequently sold to Jack Sangster of Ariel and the company name changed once again, this time to Triumph Engineering Co Ltd. One year later Triumph began designing their own engines instead of using designs from Coventry Climax, which were engine designers and manufactures. In July 1939, the company found itself in receivership and the factory equipment and company were offered up for sale. The Triumph Motor Company was sold to T.W Ward, but because of the impact of WW2, the production of cars stopped. In November 1944, the Triumph Motor Company with the entire Triumph brand was bought by the Standard Motor Company and later, in 1945, Triumph Motor Company Ltd was merged with production transferring to Standard's factory at Canley, on the outskirts of Coventry's city centre. In the 1960's, the company was sold once again, and brought this time by Leyland Motors Ltd, which led to the merger of Triumph with the British Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968. The Triumph trademark is currently owned by BMW, which was brought with Rover in 1994.
The Rover Company is a British Car Company founded as Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry. Before 1885, the Rover Company used to develop bicycles and also created templates for today's style modern bicycles. Rover soon moved into the automotive industry. In 1889, the company name was changed J.K Starley & Co., and later changed again in the 1890's to the Rover Cycle Company. Rover introduced its first car in 1912, a 12hp model which became popular and successful. Rover introduced a "one model" policy, meaning that all other cars were dropped. Land Rover vehicles were added from 1947 onwards, and all production was moved to Solihull due to the devastation of the Coventry blitz.

From the 1950's to the 1960's, Rover experienced its most successful period, with Land Rover becoming its greatest asset. Rover started, at this early period to research on gas turbine-fuelled vehicles. The Rover Marque was passed through the British Aerospace which made it the primary brand of the new renamed Rover Group, which was the branding which was later to be sold into the ownership of the BMW Group. In 2006, the BMW group sold the Rover Marque to Ford for approximately £6 Million. Legally the Rover marque is the property of Land Rover under the terms of Ford's purchase of its name. In 2008, Ford reached an agreement with Tata Motors of India to include the Rover marque as part of their sale of the Jaguar Land Rover operations. The Rover name came from one of their bicycle products which they named the Rover.
Jaguar has its origins from the Swallow Sidecar Company which was founded in Blackpool on the 11th September 1922. They moved to Coventry to take advantage of a skilled workforce in order to increase productivity. This was changed to Jaguar after WW2 because the "SS" brand was associated with the Nazi SS Military organisation. The founders of Jaguar Cars were Sir William Lyons and William Walmsley. Jaguar was and always have been famous for their luxury and good looking cars. In 1928, in Coventry, when the demand for Austin Swallow became too great for the factory and in 1951, having outgrown the Coventry Site, Jaguar moved to Browns Lane, on the outskirts of the city centre. Some of Jaguar's old models are still as famous and sought after now as they were when first produced, such as the Jaguar Mk, Jaguar E-Type and Jaguar XJ220, which was the fastest production car of its time and many models are now deemed as collectors and classic cars. Jaguar's sale slogan for many years was "Grace. Space. Pace." which aided sales to those that could afford models such as the XJ6 and E-Type. In 1966, Jaguar merged with the British Motor Corporation, Austin-Morris Combine, to form BHM. After merging with Leyland, which had already taken over Rover and the Standard Triumph, the company became the British Leyland Motor Corporation. Jaguar holds a Royal Warrant from HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Charles and has manufactured cars for many Prime Ministers and diplomats as well as celebrities. Jaguar cars are now designed in the Whitley Plant in Coventry and in Gaydon in Warwickshire, Lotus Cars have joined Jaguar, MIRA Ltd and Caparo to create a luxury hybrid executive sedan project, which is called "Limo-Green", this project is funded by the UK Government Technology Strategy Board. Jaguar's motorsport cars were also very successful on the international stage of motorsport. Jaguar is currently owned by Tata Motors Ltd.

At present, Coventry does not have large scale motor manufacturing, however vehicle manufacturing is still alive in Coventry with Spyker (The new owners of Saab, manufacturing high end sports cars in Coventry) LTI continue to make the TX4 Taxi Cab in Coventry, although due to our skilled workmen, there are possibilities that some manufacturers may move their automobile manufacturing back here in the future. For now though, all that we have to show the next generation of our great automobile legacy is the Coventry Transport Museum, which contains many cars produced here. Some companies still have offices in Coventry, such as Peugeot and we remain the headquarters for Jaguar, but for the time, at least, Coventry's car production remains dormant.
Coventry has helped the production of green vehicles as well, such as Modec (Manufacturing electric vans in Coventry) and MicroCab (Making hydrogen cell power cars in Coventry).