The Mayor of London and Ford Motor Co have both launched new cleantech hubs in the UK capital, as the city seeks to cement its place as a tech investment center one year after the Brexit vote.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan yesterday announced the launch of Better Futures, an incubator focused on cleantech start-ups, while Ford launched a new office focusing in part on autonomous vehicles.
Ford’s new venture is to hire about 40 specialists and open later this year and is the automaker’s third such “smart mobility” office. The others are in Dearborn, Michigan, and Palo Alto, California.
Ford is set to trial a plug-in hybrid transit fleet in the UK this year.
“Basing our rapidly growing team here in the heart of mobility innovation in London is critical to accelerating our learning and development of new technologies,” Ford Motor Co group vice president and president of Europe, Middle East and Africa Steven Armstrong said.
The announcements come almost a year after the UK voted to leave the EU. While a number of investors have been vocal about the future of London as a tech hub, a range of tech firms have been hiring and investing in London.
Tech start-up factory RocketSpace, which in San Francisco was home to companies such as Uber Technologies Inc, recently opened a new office in London, while Google recently revealed plans for its giant new UK headquarters.
Ford’s new venture is to be based at Plexal, the new £15 million (US$19 million) tech hub based in east London, on the former site of the 2012 Olympics.
The 6,300m2 venture can support about 800 tech firms, the Mayor of London’s promotional agency London & Partners said in a statement.
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