What's the news?

If you're sitting there reading this headline, there's a good chance you're a little bit confused about what Alcraft Motor Company does. And to be honest, so are we. The firm's goal itself is very easy to understand: to reinterpret existing vehicles using British design values. Brilliant. We also know that the company will begin its design work with models from Aston Martin and the Jaguar Land Rover catalogue. Fine. But what we can't seem to get our heads around is what these 'British design values' actually are.

Alcraft's initial study is the Range Rover example you see at the top of the page. The team at Alcraft, which has been bolstered by students from London's Royal College of Art, has been under the watchful eye of Matthew Humphries - Chief Designer at Morgan until earlier this year.

He says, "We've made [the Range Rover] more elegant by simplifying the lines and have given it the timelessness associated with the best British design. We've also differentiated it more from the other Range Rover models and I think we've achieved a more limousine-like presence while ensuring a degree of classic British understatement."

Now, to these eyes, the original design of the 2013 Range Rover is a thing of beauty; and the rendering that Alcraft has produced here does seem to make it look a little dull. Boring, even. However, Chief Executive David Alcraft has pre-empted responses such as mine.

"Although some customers want their cars to make loud personal statements, we believe there's a gap in the market for personalising products in a way which explicitly respects their brands' heritage and British style. This is something which is not specifically provided for by other companies," comments Alcraft.

There is evidence to support this, too. Following a recent survey of car owners undertaken by Alcraft, the team has discovered that almost half of those questioned felt that British-influenced design and culture was important to them in their latest vehicle choice; despite most of them not actually owning British cars.

Furthermore, Alcraft's other projects - restyled versions of the Range Rover Sport and Evoque, Land Rover Discovery and Jaguar XF Sportbrake - have already sparked potential customer interest. Just goes to show what I know...

Anything else?

To show that Alcraft isn't messing around, another big-gun in the name of Christopher Macgowan OBE is a part of the team, too. Macgowan is the ex-CEO of both SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) and the Retail Motor Industry Federation.

"I'm extremely happy to support not only a start-up automotive business but one which has British values at its heart," states Macgowan. "We hope that Alcraft Motor Company will help ensure that the [UK] gains a fitting share of the expanding market for personalised products.