HORIBA MIRA Announces Significant Investment into World Class Facilities
HORIBA MIRA Ltd. – a world-leader in advanced engineering, research and product testing – is benefiting from committed investment of almost £16m since joining the HORIBA Group in July 2015.
The significant investment from the HORIBA Group, which has been committed over the last six months, enables MIRA to continue with its ambitious plans for growth within vehicle R&D, engineering and testing, and invest in a number of its current facilities, therefore continuing to enhancing its capabilities.
The investment specifically enables significant upgrades to a number of MIRA’s existing test facilities and capabilities, including:
- MIRA’s world-class Climatic Wind Tunnel, including major upgrades to the operating plant, ensuring the facility remains the leading Climatic Wind Tunnel in the UK
- The outdoor High Energy Crash Centre, including the addition of new high-speed digital cameras that speed up the testing process, and the introduction of a second winch to increase testing capacity. This remains a unique facility that is subject to demand from an international customer base
- MIRA’s Kinematics & Compliance Facility, which includes integrated optical measurement of chassis system properties, that are unique in the industry and Vehicle Dynamics test equipment
- MIRA’s world-renowned Proving Ground, with improvements to the Wet Handling Circuit and upgrades to its high-speed circuit which will be completed by autumn 2016
- The entire operation of MIRA’s Euro NCAP-accredited Safety Test Centre, including a new Data Acquisition System (DAS), allowing for quicker vehicle preparation and installation, and state-of-the-art ‘WorldSID’ and ‘Q Series’ crash test dummies for the assessment of vehicle occupant injury risk in lateral impacts which are required for consumer (NCAP) tests . These investments will significantly increase the test capacity within the facility, as well as ensure HORIBA MIRA can continue to provide testing to all global test standards
In addition to the above items, the investment includes £7.4m of investment in critical infrastructure at MIRA Technology Park, which was announced in a visit from Marcus Jones MP, Minister for Local Government, earlier this month.
Atsushi Horiba, Chairman, President and CEO at HORIBA, said:
“MIRA is a hugely successful business within its field, and since it became part of the HORIBA Group in 2015 it has continued to make waves within the automotive industry. The investment that the HORIBA Group has made to date is a signal of our long-term intent to continue to invest heavily in the development of HORIBA MIRA’s long-term global strategy.”
Dr George Gillespie OBE, CEO at HORIBA MIRA Ltd., said:
“This first wave of investment that HORIBA has made enables us to invest in a number of MIRA’s existing facilities, ensuring we can continue to provide our customers with world-class facilities and engineering capabilities, and that our global expertise and offer remain unrivalled. In addition, we have also been able to complete Phase 1 of MIRA Technology Park. Going forward, our plan for both HORIBA MIRA and MIRA Technology Park is to grow significantly and rapidly, and we already have a number of exciting plans in place – supported by HORIBA – that accelerate that vision. Many of these plans are in the process of coming to fruition, and we look forward to announcing them in the coming weeks and months.”
MIRA became part of the HORIBA Group on July 14 2015. The investment saw HORIBA expand its existing portfolio, with a move into vehicle engineering and testing consultancy.
Collectively, the two companies have 140 years of experience in their respective fields, with both celebrating 70 years of operation in 2015/16.
