The Cowley car factory, or Mini Plant Oxford as it has been retitled under the ownership of BMW, is the British motor industry in microcosm. Its future says much about what lies in store for the UK automotive sector as vehicles go all-electric. Created before the First World War by one of the founding fathers of the motor industry, William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, the factory was a pioneer of mass car production. Like other car plants in the Second World War, it became a so-called shadow factory playing a crucial part of the war effort, building Tiger Moth training planes and recycling downed Luftwaffe aircraft. SponsoredThe factory was at the epicentre of the shifting fortunes and enforced consolidation of the postwar British motor industry,

Source: The Times May 21, 2021 08:03 UTC