Powertrain Ltd was a British company based in
Birmingham which made some cars, manufactured and marketed
car
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as ...
engines and
transmissions. The company was owned by
MG Rover Group and
Phoenix Venture Holdings
Phoenix Venture Holdings (PVH), also known as the Phoenix Consortium, was an English company formed by four businessmen ( John Towers, Peter Beale, Nick Stephenson and John Edwards). Following BMW's break-up of the Rover Group a financially com ...
and was based in the South Works at Rover's
Longbridge plant
Longbridge plant is an industrial complex in Longbridge, Birmingham, England, currently leased by SAIC as a research and development facility for its MG Motor subsidiary. Vehicle assembly ended in 2016.
Opened in 1905, by the late 1960s Longbr ...
. The companies main products were the K-Series four-cylinder and six-cylinder Engines and the L-Series four-cylinder diesel engine. The company mainly produced engines for MG Rover between 2000 and 2005 but also supplied
Land Rover with the L-Series and K-Series engines for the
Land Rover Freelander which was developed by Rover Group in the 1990s during the ownership by
BMW and
British Aerospace. As well as Land Rover, K-Series engines were also supplied to many small mass production car companies like MG Rover such as FSO and SAPIA.
History
The company was formed as part of MG Rover Group after the sale of the Rover and MG assets from BMW to Phoenix Venture Holdings for £10.00 in 2000 when BMW broke up the Rover Group. The MG Rover Group had to purchase the Powertrain business from BMW after 2000 for a separate sum of money to the £10.00 for the MG Rover business.
Before the administration of Powertrain Limited, the MG Rover Group and its parent company, PVH sold the assets of the K-Series four and six cylinder engine to SAIC for £67 Million when the 25 and 75 platforms and technology were also sold to SAIC.
The company was placed into
administration on the 8 April 2005. On 22 July 2005 the joint administrators
PricewaterhouseCoopers announced the sale of the assets of Powertrain and the MG Rover Group to
Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation.
Prior to the company going into administration, the
Health and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a UK government agency responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in Great Britain. It is a non-depar ...
reported 101 cases of a respiratory disease outbreak at its Longbridge factory.
Powertrain produced engines for the MG Rover Group, Land Rover and several other companies around the world due to the success of the K-Series engine
Products
Their main products were:
*
K-Series four-cylinder unleaded engines
*
KV6
Tomb KV6 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings is the final resting place of the 20th-Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses IX. However, the archaeological evidence and the quality of decoration it contains indicates that the tomb was not finished in time for Rames ...
V6 unleaded engine
*
L-series turbo diesel engine
*
PG1 gearbox
*
K-Series six-cylinder 2.0 V6 unleaded engine
*Land Rover Freelander L-Series turbo diesel
*Land Rover Freelander K-Series unleaded engines
The Powertrain Limited business did not produce the
BMW M47 2.0 CDTi and 2.0 CDT Diesel Engines fitted in the Rover 75. They also did not produce the
Ford Mustang 4.6 V8 engines fitted in the
MG SV,
MG ZT V8 and
Rover 75 V8.
In addition to supplying engines and transmissions to MG and Rover cars, Powertrain Ltd also supplied engines to other vehicle manufacturers including
Land Rover,
Lotus
Lotus may refer to:
Plants
*Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly:
** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae
**Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...
,
Poland FSO (K series) and
Caterham.
References
{{reflist
Defunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom
Motor vehicle engine manufacturers
Diesel engine manufacturers
Engine manufacturers of the United Kingdom