Centre for Automotive Industry Research

Our mission is to focus on the broader business, strategic, social, environmental and economic impacts of global automobility and of the sector that provides it.

The Centre for Automotive Industry Research's (CAIR) mission is to focus on the broader business, strategic, social, environmental and economic impacts of global automobility and of the sector that provides it.

We seek to continue to be recognised worldwide by academics, policy makers, industry, the media and other stakeholders as a source of theoretical insight and objective analysis with a uniquely cross-disciplinary perspective.

With increasing pressure to make the automotive industry and its products more sustainable, growing uncertainty in the industry and questioning of existing business models, CAIR’s research expertise is increasingly valued.

STARS project reports

Wells, P., Liu, H., Maurice, S., Sanvicente, E. and Beccaria, S., 2018. Review of the Impacts on the Automobility Market. Available at: http://stars-h2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/STARS-D3.2.pdf. [Accessed: 11/02/2021].

Wells, P., Liu, H. and Beccaria, S., 2018. Review of the Impacts on the Automotive Industry. Available at: http://stars-h2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/STARS-D3.3.pdf. [Accessed: 11/02/2021].

Books and book chapters

Wells, P., 2019. Innovation and ecological impact: the case of automobility, Chapter 16 pp 281-297 in Boons, F. and McMeekin, A. (2019) Handbook of Sustainable Innovation, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Wells, P., 2019. Zero-carbon logistics, Chapter 6 pp 81-96 in in Wells, P. (ed) Contemporary Operations and Logistics: Achieving excellence in turbulent times, Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wells, P., 2019. Business model innovation at the interface between global production systems and local demand, Chapter 4 pp 45-60 in Wells, P. (ed) Contemporary Operations and Logistics: Achieving excellence in turbulent times, Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wells, P., 2019. Introduction, Chapter 1 pp 1-10 in Wells, P. (ed) Contemporary Operations and Logistics: Achieving excellence in turbulent times, Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wells, P. (ed)., 2019. Contemporary Operations and Logistics: Achieving excellence in turbulent times, Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nieuwenhuis, P. and Wells, P. (eds)., 2015. The global automotive industry, Chichester: John Wiley.

Conference papers

Liu, H. and Wells, P., 2016. Socio-technical disadvantage: making sustainable mobility affordable and accessible. Presented at: The Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative, Maine, US, May 2016.

Liu, H., Purvis, L., Mason, R. and Wells, P., 2018. A Service Ecosystems Perspective on Innovation in Distributed Manufacturing Supply Chains. Presented at: Twentieth International Working Seminar on Production Economics, Innsbruck, Austria, 19-23, February 2018.

Liu, H. and Wells, P., 2019. Corporate agency and socio-technical transitions: business model innovation in transition pathways. Presented at: 4th International Conference on New Business Models, Berlin, Germany, 1-3, July 2019.

Wells, P. (2020) Automobility futures and COVID-19: a socio-technical systems perspective, Presentation for the PLACE (virtual) seminar series, 22^nd October.

Wells, P. (2020) Integrated mobility: a fundamentalist approach, Presentation to Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES) Fourth (Virtual) Mobility Workshop, 13th October.

Wells, P. (2020) Automotive Business Model Evolution, Presentation to the Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentavel, Federal University of Brasilia, 6^th May.

Wells, P. (2020) Creating the Automotive Business Model, Presentation to the Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentavel, Federal University of Brasilia, 30^th April.

Wells, P. (2020) Automotive battery LCA: The issues, Presentation to the Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentavel, Federal University of Brasilia, 23^rd April.

Markard, J.; Wells, P.; Lente, H. v.; and Yap, X. S., 2020. Unsustainable Transitions –A blind spot for transitions research? 11^th IST Conference, Vienna, 18-21 August.

Wells, P., 2019. Automobility platforms, Presentation at FGV, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 14^th November.

Wells, P., 2019. Future automobility, Presentation to the Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentavel, Federal University of Brasilia, 15^th October.

Wells, P. and Wang, L., 2019. Competitive Constellations As Boundary-Bridging In Socio-Technical Transitions: An Automotive Industry Case Study, Paper presented at the 4^th International Conference on New Business Models, Berlin, 1^st to 3^rd July.

Skeete, J-P; Heidrich, O; Mohammad, R.; Hill, G. and Wells, P., 2019. Cars, EVs and battery recycling forecasts and economic models, Paper presented at 10th International Conference on Industrial Ecology, Beijing, 7-11^th July.

Wang, L. and Wells, P., 2019. Transitions to where? Driving towards dystopia, Early Career Researchers Socio-Technical Transitions Conference, Lisbon, 4-6^th April.

Wells, P.; Pettit, S.; Abouarghoub, W.; Haider, J. and Beresford, A. (2018) A multi-level perspective for assessing future CO2 emissions from shipping. Maritime Bahamas, October.

Wells, P. (2018) Stepping stones or stumbling blocks? Understanding and influencing the scale, pace and direction of change in socio-technical systems, Plenary presentation to IST2018, Manchester, 10^th-13^th June.

Wells, P.; Pettit, S.; Abouarghoub, W.; Haider, J. and Beresford, A. (2018) Future CO2 emissions from shipping: four-scenarios using a multi-level perspective – a proposed methodology, Proceedings of Global Maritime, Sopot, Poland, 19th - 20th April 2018

Wells, P., 2019. The death of the car: The end or a new beginning? Presentation to the Airports Council International 28th Airport Commercial and Retail Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, 18th to 20th March.

Wells, P., 2018. The future of End-Of-Life vehicles in the new automobility era, Presentation to Vehicle Recycling 2018 Conference, Munich, 25^th to 26^th October.

Wells, P., 2018. When and where will the last car exhaust be built? Presentation to Automotive Exhaust Systems 2018 Conference, Berlin, 1^st-2^nd February.

Internet and non-academic publications

Wells, P., 2019. Academic contributors to television programmes should be paid, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/academic-contributors-television-programmes-should-be-paid.

Wells, P., 2019. The UK automotive sector in crisis: Is it Brexit? https://ukandeu.ac.uk/the-uk-automotive-sector-crisis-is-it-brexit/ and in http://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/brexit/2019/06/14/the-uk-automotive-sector-crisis-is-it-brexit/.

Wells, P., 2019. Logistics and geopolitics, https://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/logistics-manufacturing/2019/02/25/logistics-as-geopolitics-chinas-one-belt-one-road-strategy/

Skeete, J. (2020). ‘The ReLiB project: Looking at the benefits Li-ion batteries can bring’. ATF Professional – Editorial. Link: https://atfpro.co.uk/the-relib-project-looking-at-the-benefits-li-ion-batteries-can-bring/

Selected publications

Wang, Y. , Skeete, J. and Owusu, G. 2021. Understanding the implications of artificial intelligence on field service operations: a case study of BT. Production Planning and Control (10.1080/09537287.2021.1882694)
Skeete, J. et al. 2020. Beyond the EVent horizon: battery waste, recycling, and sustainability in the United Kingdom electric vehicle transition. Energy Research and Social Science 69 101581. (10.1016/j.erss.2020.101581)
Liu, H. et al. 2020. Developing logistics value propositions: drawing Insights from a distributed manufacturing solution. Industrial Marketing Management 89 , pp.517-527. (10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.03.011)
Wang, L. and Wells, P. 2020. Automobilities after SARS-CoV-2: a socio-technical perspective. Sustainability 12 5978. (10.3390/su12155978)
Oliff, H. et al. 2020. Improving human-robot-interaction utilizing learning and intelligence: a human factors-based approach. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering 17 (3), pp.1597-1610. (10.1109/TASE.2020.2967093)
Chiarini, A. and Kumar, M. 2020. Lean six sigma and industry 4.0 integration for operational excellence: evidence from Italian manufacturing companies. Production Planning and Control (10.1080/09537287.2020.1784485)
Wells, P. et al. 2020. More friends than foes? The impact of automobility-as-a-service on the incumbent automotive industry. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 154 119975. (10.1016/j.techfore.2020.119975)
Wells, P. et al. 2020. A socio-technical transitions perspective for assessing future sustainability following the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy 16 (1), pp.29-36. (10.1080/15487733.2020.1763002)
Skeete, J. 2019. Concentration of power: a UK case study examining the dominance of incumbent automakers and suppliers in automotive sociotechnical transitions. Global Transitions 1 , pp.93-103. (10.1016/j.glt.2019.06.001)
Köhler, J. et al., 2019. An agenda for sustainability transitions research: State of the art and future directions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 31 , pp.1-32. (10.1016/j.eist.2019.01.004)
Koenig, F. , Found, P. and Kumar, M. 2019. Innovative airport 4.0 condition-based maintenance system for baggage handling DCV systems. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management (10.1108/IJPPM-04-2018-0136)
Skeete, J. 2019. The obscure link between motorsport and energy efficient, low-carbon innovation: Evidence from the UK and European Union. Journal of Cleaner Production 214 , pp.674-684. (10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.048)
Skeete, J. 2018. Level 5 autonomy: the new face of disruption in road transport. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 134 , pp.22-34. (10.1016/j.techfore.2018.05.003)
Wells, P. and Nieuwenhuis, P. 2018. Over the hill? Exploring the other side of the Rogers' innovation diffusion model from a consumer and business model perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production 194 , pp.444-451. (10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.144)
Skeete, J. 2017. Examining the role of policy design and policy interaction in EU automotive emissions performance gaps. Energy Policy 104 , pp.373-381. (10.1016/j.enpol.2017.02.018)

CAIR researchers and PhD students are engaged in multiple networks and research groups at an international level.

These include two thematic strands of research that have been applied to the automotive domain. The first is socio-technical transitions with the Socio-technical Transitions Research Network (STRN). The second is business model innovation for sustainability (BMIfS). CAIR is also linked to the SCORAI (Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative) network and to The Great Transition Initiative.

For over 30 years CAIR has undertaken research for academic funding agencies, companies, policy bodies and NGOs, related to the automotive industry. This work has been for, among others, the EPSRC, ESRC, European Commission, Horizon 2020, the OECD, Ford, Toyota, the Chinese Government, Greenpeace, the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers, and the UK Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership.

Academics from CAIR also participate in Cardiff University’s multidisciplinary Sustainable Places Research Institute and in the Electric Vehicle Centre of Excellence (EVCE) directed by Professor Liana Cipcigan in the School of Engineering.

Current CAIR research projects include:

Exploratory study of the uptake of electric vehicles in Brazil (with UnB, Brasilia, Brazil)
Investigation on behalf of a finance company on the prospects for an inflection point in the uptake in battery electric vehicles in the UK, with a focus on the fleet market.
Study into the expansion of battery recycling facilities at multiple spatial scales

Recent completed CAIR research projects include:

ReLib. A 36-month study into the economic and business aspects of recycling battery packs from battery electric vehicles. Consortium led by Birmingham University. Funded by the Faraday Institution. Ended March 2021.
STARS. A 36-month study into car sharing schemes in the European Union. Consortium led by Politecnico Milano. Funded by the Horizon 2020 programme. Ended March 2020.