The Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire is celebrating its 50th birthday, and is looking at further development to stay relevant in the future.
Opened in 1970 by General Motors as a testing and development facility for Bedford and Vauxhall, it has naturally flat and hilly sections.
Construction involved moving nearly 2,000,000m3 of earth and 100,0003 of aggregate, hardcore, sand and cement, and planting 200,000 trees.
In 1988, Millbrook started trading independently as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lotus and began working as a test service provider.
Millbrook expanded in 2015 with the acquisition of winter vehicle and tire testing facility Test World in Finland.
A total of £120m (US$148m) has been invested in test facilities since 2015, including acquiring EV test system provider Revolutionary Engineering in 2018 and opening the Millbrook Revolutionary Engineering site in California in 2019.
The original facilities have received significant investments including opening a propulsion system facility in 2019 and its Battery Test Facility.
Millbrook is also home to the UK’s first 5G network for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.
The focus for the future is to develop safety and integrity; customer service; be an employer of choice; business improvement; and investment, partnership and acquisitions.