My interest in the last few weeks has been drawn to one of the areas of manufacturing hardest hit by Covid impact, our automotive sector.

Even before the pandemic it felt that the consumer uncertainty caused by economic nervousness, along with a sense that hydrocarbon-burning vehicles may not be the future, had combined to significantly slow that industry.

Even with those challenges, in 2020 our automotive industry generated

£60 billion of turnover for the UK, with over £40bn of that being exported – around 13% of our total – and over 150,000 people were directly employed in manufacturing for the sector.

Little wonder it is rightly recognised for its significant importance to the UK economy, and not just in those headline numbers but also for the broader benefits that it brings. Its highly automated and digitally enabled manufacturing sets an aspirational bar for other manufacturing, and the research and innovation that the public associate with UK motorsport is in truth also present from buses to bin lorries.

Right now, the sector is a perfect case study of the current plight of most UK manufacturers: strong demand combined with multiple supply constraints that make meeting those orders extremely challenging.

The effects are clear, with waiting times for fairly standard new vehicles on a par with what we might have previously expected for the rarest or most exotic machinery, and second-hand values increased across the board.

Semiconductor scarcity gets top billing in the list of reasons why, and other specialist and not-so-special materials are part of the picture of shortage too.

Acceleration of changing the fuel that powers our vehicles is key to that demand in the consumer market, whereas the wider targets for decarbonising public services and private business are driving the pace of change for commercial vehicles.

So, despite a public perception that the best days of the sector lie in the past, there is plenty to be optimistic for once we get past the current issues on the supply side, and that opportunity extends to Scotland too.

Whilst we would have to look back to Linwood in 1981 for volume car manufacture, there are excellent examples of sector production in commercial vehicle and car component supply.

With the joy of getting out to see real people, I recently visited Biggar-based James A. Cuthbertson Ltd, who have been a much-respected manufacturer of winter maintenance equipment (snow ploughs and gritters to you and me) for over 75 years and are skilled in ensuring their equipment integrates seamlessly with the base truck that their system is built around.

Well known for their reliable built-to-last approach, they took on a new challenge with a goal to offer the UK’s first alternatively fuelled winter maintenance vehicle, partnering with Ulemco Ltd to convert a standard truck chassis to a hydrogen dual fuel system. The technology employed allows on-board hydrogen to be mixed directly with existing fuel in the standard engine, displacing between 30% and 70% of the energy required from diesel (with resulting emissions reduction), whilst ensuring that such a safety-critical vehicle can still operate even if no hydrogen is available.

With that first example ultimately supplied to Glasgow City Council, the programme was extended to deliver the UK’s first large fleet of 20 hydrogen-conversion winter maintenance vehicles to Glasgow, and the opportunity now is that Cuthbertson’s have an established delivery partnership for a well-developed technology to commercially grow their business.

A short trip back up the M74 to Larkhall takes us to a very different and significant supply-chain player in the sector, Xandor Automotive. Operating from their current site for over 30 years, they are an excellent example of high-volume, high-value component supply achieved through almost constant investment in industry 4.0 level automation for complex moulding and coating processes.

Their products feed a customer base of premium car and SUV (sport utility vehicle) manufacturers, with exterior moulded parts leaving the factory in exactly the correct shade and colour of finish to clip straight on to the vehicles they are destined for, with sensors already fitted and ready to plug in. I recently visited them to see just how much they have moved forward, making the most of the lower demand periods of lockdown to reinvent their production facility for even greater efficiency.

What I saw was impressive throughout, but a standout was an investment of nearly £3m in robotic hot-foil stamping for super sleek finishes to exterior parts. With demand for the electric vehicles that their products fit on to rising, their staff of over 200 skilled manufacturing roles and support professionals face a welcome and busy outlook ahead.

They are just two excellent examples of a sector that gains little recognition publicly in Scotland, industrial operations quietly getting on with quality manufacturing that we drive past on the way up and down the M74, and they certainly are not the only examples in Scotland. We have a good mix of large to small, from components to finished vehicles, and commercial to consumer automotive supply. For a sector with the capability to provide the solutions for decarbonising transport, the opportunity to stay busy despite wider challenges is a strong one.

Paul Sheerin is chief executive of Scottish Engineering