Safety testing of new car makers.tech and EVS begins

Thatcham Research increases capacity with new facilities in Nottingham-shire

- JOHN EVANS

Insurance industry-owned car testing organisation Thatcham Research has begun its first research programme at its new centre in Nottinghamshire, less than a year after construction started.

Based at Gamston airport, which Thatcham purchased in 2021, the new centre aims to ensure the organisation can keep pace with the near 30 vehicle platforms that it anticipates will emerge from new manufacturers in the next two years, in addition to the 15 or so that it expects to come from existing car makers – the smaller number owing to platform-sharing.

The airport itself will remain operational (Thatcham in 2022 upgraded the main runway), but workshop and testing facilities have been created within the existing hangars and associated buildings.

"Our current 18-strong team is still becoming familiar with the new site, which is a lot better and much more suitable than our old test centre at Upper Heyford [Oxfordshire], whose lease had expired,” said Gamston’s chief engineer, Ben Townsend.

“We will be expanding on the work already carried out at our Newbury [Berkshire] HQ with the aim of becoming a centre of excellence in vehicle technology research and safety testing.”