Silicon Valley-based innovation platform Plug and Play and MIRA Technology Park in the UK have formed a mobility innovation hub at the MIRA site in Nuneaton. A range of R&D facilities are available there, as well as access to highly skilled engineering expertise.
The partnership, supported by key government bodies including Zenzic, will enable OEM and Tier 1s to expedite their technology development agendas while supporting startups to prove their concepts and find routes to market for new innovations.
Mike Olmstead, CRO at Plug and Play, said, “With the global mobility industry facing unprecedented change amid megatrends in EVs and connected and autonomous vehicles, the need to accelerate innovation, through investment in talent and technology has never been greater.
“Having already established a successful track record in the USA and the rest of Europe, the high-quality of startups and academic research emerging from UK universities makes it an attractive market to enter. As such, we knew the MIRA Technology Park – with its prime location in the heart of the UK mobility sector, pioneering facilities and high-profile tenants – was the right fit for us. We look forward to achieving some great things from this exciting collaboration.”
Jack Bartlett, responsible for global strategic development at MIRA Technology Park, commented, “We considered for some time how we could facilitate innovation, when we discovered Plug and Play and got to grips with their unique business model it was very clear that this was the right solution. Our collaboration will provide large corporate organizations in the mobility sector with a means to innovate, utilizing the benefits of the established and proven Plug and Play innovation model and the locational benefits of MIRA Technology Park.
“With future mobility technologies evolving at such a rapid pace, the importance of collaboration between enterprising startups, investors and established organizations cannot be overstated. Plug and Play’s decision to set up their UK mobility operations here will be a major step forward in how the UK industry will develop and deploy the next generation of automobiles.”
Daniel Ruiz, CEO of Zenzic, said, “Attracting a pioneering innovation platform such as Plug and Play to the UK represents a huge opportunity for the nation’s mobility industry to break fresh ground in self-driving technologies. The move is a real testament to the great work MIRA Technology Park has done in recent years in pooling together the best minds, investment and facilities into one location in order to drive cutting-edge developments that will benefit future mobility for all.”