The start-up that gave up pianos and ice picks to make a lighter, greener car.
Design-led strategic thinking has been helping Axon Automotive get its plans for an energy-efficient carbon-fibre car on the road. The company had developed a revolutionary type of carbon fibre which could be made into much more complex shapes than the panels and sheets already on the market. Axon wanted to create a fully carbon-fibre car with its new technology – one that could run using 20% less fuel thanks to its lightweight chassis.
Lotus had already experimented with using the material, and, before its collapse, MG Rover had plans to follow suit. The combination of Rover’s demise and a naming issue – Coretex, the start-up’s initial name, had recently been trademarked in the US – acted as the catalyst for a strategic shake-up.
The company boldly decided to go it alone, and design and produce its own carbon-fibre car. But, says managing director Professor Steve Cousins, “If we were serious about the company’s future, we concluded we would need serious investment.”
We focused on corporate identity – which we hadn’t realised we needed – and it forced us to think about products we might make
Axon joined a pilot of the Design Council’s Innovate service for hi-tech start-ups, under design mentor Oliver King’s tutelage. Cousins sums up the challenges facing them: “We needed to change our identity and our name, and bring to the market a product we’d been working on for many years.”
King’s methods made good sense to Cousins. “He used design thinking on the whole company, not simply product design or visual identity. It was a much more strategic approach,” explains Cousins. “We focused on corporate identity – which we hadn’t realised we needed – and it also forced us to think about the products we might make.”
The short-term goal for the business was to create a compelling corporate identity and present itself at the Oxford Venturefest new technology showcase in July 2005. Axon chose to focus on four potential products: a piano, a go-kart, an ice pick and a car chassis. With these areas agreed, developing the company’s name and branding began in earnest. Aided by a naming consultant, the company chose the names Axontex for its material and Axon Automotive for the company itself.
Axon then invested its efforts in producing an eye-catching stand for the show, which they hoped would attract investors. In a short space of time, says Cousins, “We developed structured literature across a brochure, website and visuals for the show. We had a name and an identity to bring to what was a very well-established technology stream.”
This clarity of vision is vital for companies hoping to attract investors, believes mentor King: “Getting a company ready for investment isn’t just about making the business attractive – it’s also about making the management look and feel capable and confident about the company.”
Axon proved a hit at Venturefest, winning an award for its stand and turning plenty of heads. “The feedback suggested that, yes, we could get funding, but we would definitely need to focus on one area,” recalls Cousins. Axon’s new proposition was that it would develop and build a carbon-fibre car, using Axontex to build both the chassis and structural frame, something of a first in the automotive market. The strategy paid immediate dividends. In March 2006, the Energy Saving Trust awarded Axon £650,000 – 45% of the £1.4m required to build the prototype vehicle.
Since then the company has not looked back, says Cousins. “We’ve taken forward the corporate identity work and registered our trademark, which has evolved since the original Design Council intervention, though it’s very much in that spirit.”
And in March, at the Sexy Green Car Show at the Eden Project in Cornwall, Axon was officially launched – the first general-purpose launch of a British car company for about 50 years.
Article first published in Design Council Magazine, Issue 2, Summer 2007