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sponsor at the time for BRM, so we have been involved
with four wheeled motorsports for all those years as well.
We are also renewing our efforts in the Automotive
Aftermarket with a new team and a new degree of
concentration on that specific market.
You clearly have a foothold in the Classic car industry, how
big a market is it for you today?
Whatever happens in the modern-day car market, I
think we can be assured that the classic market is going
to increase significantly. If you look at the figures from
the Federation of Historic Vehicles, there are now more
than 1.5 million classic vehicles in the UK alone. So, it
is an industry that is extremely important in terms of
employment of people, skills in the UK and to our GDP.
You are certainly a leader in the classic market, it also must
be a joy to work within it?
Yes, there are a number of key classic markets, the US is
the biggest, closely followed by Japan, the UK, France,
Germany, the Netherlands, but our own market in the UK,
as it is in the Formula1 world, is a real hub for expertise and
restoration.
We see a lot of the German OEMs coming to the UK for
large restoration projects, because of the unique skills
levels we have in this country.
With Motul being a worldwide renowned brand and the
ICE ban coming to the UK in 2030, how are Motul working
towards this and adapting to different countries plans?
The dilemma is it could be different for every country, so
as you quite rightly say, 2030 for ICE, 2035 for Hybrid in
the UK, but if we look at the developing world, it could
be many more years before they go down this route from
both an infrastructure and a GDP point of view, which
means the balancing act we need to find is to deal with the
mature markets to grow and sustain the business we have,
to keep up to date with the specifications that are still
continuously being updated for the Internal Combustion
Engines, whilst also considering the next great thing.
We already have a comprehensive range for Hybrids, but
beyond that we are beginning to look at new generation
vehicles.
Although EV Vehicles have been around since 1881, we really
are just at the beginning of development and evolving in this
sector?
It is evolving, ironically a lot of the first electric vehicles
were that far back as you say and the Internal Combustion
only took over because of its convenience distributing the
fuel, there are still global issues about the availability and
security of charging network.
We also need to remember, development isn’t over, we
still have hydrogen in the future and Porsche are talking
about synthetic fuels. There is a lot of uncertainty at the
moment with the OEMs as to which will be the longterm
view. Therefore, our research and development
departments are currently split across all of those areas to
make sure we maintain our presence in everything.
We sense a lot of excitement at Motul whilst many others in
the industry have gulped at the prospect of 2030.
Industry Insights celebrates the 50th Anniversary of
the first fully synthetic motor oil: Motul 300V
For details of the wide range of Motul workshop oils and
other garage products, check out: www.motul.com
Our huge passion lies in motorsport, and we know it will
always continue in every sort of form.
We also are very passionate about the classic car
business, and we believe out of adversity comes
opportunity.
Motul is a privately owned, agile company with a global
footprint which gives us the ability to adapt, and we will
adapt.
The excitement comes from the new developments that
we have introduced at the Classic Weekend in the Car Care
arena and especially the Bio-Clean concept that you very
kindly covered in your last issue of the Garage Magazine,
which can be used for many different applications within
the Garage workshop.
So what does the next eight years hold within Motul?
It is about continuing a profitable business whilst sustaining
the research and development for the future that is able to
handle the customers we have today and to introduce an
even better range of products doubled with an even better
service. As well as always being on the lookout for the next
great things and making sure that Motul is prepared for
whatever challenges that may well be.
The classic car market is only going to grow now with the end
of the internal combustion engine, isn’t it?
Yes, personally I am a classic car owner and very passionate
about the cars themselves as well as classic car racing, both
Motul and myself hope we get the derogations we need for
classic cars to continue to survive as they are today and the
market to even grow stronger.
It is the noise, the smell, the sound of a classic car and
let’s hope that persists.
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