Helping industry develop the low carbon vehicles of tomorrow
27 business-led projects worth £45 million share £29 million of Government support Consortium led by Jaguar Land Rover receives £9 million Technology Strategy Board development funding £10 million of support on offer in competition which opens to applicants today
The development of low carbon vehicles in the UK has been given a boost today by the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, in partnership with the Office of Low Emission Vehicles and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
27 Collaborative Research Development (CRD) projects worth more than £45 million in total were revealed as the winners from two competitions run by the Technology Strategy Board’s Low Carbon Vehicles Innovation Platform. The LCVIP aims to stimulate innovation and embed capability at every stage of the UK’s automotive supply chain. The announcement was made at the Low Carbon Vehicle 2013 Show.
Phil Smith, Chairman of the Technology Strategy Board said:
“To stay at the forefront of the global automotive industry, UK businesses have to deliver the new ideas and processes that make this country the best place to do business. The projects receiving funding today have been carefully selected to make a real difference to our ability to deliver sustainable transport systems for the future.”
The projects, co-funded by the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) with additional support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), cover a wide range of automotive technologies but are each designed to strengthen the
UK’s supply chain and promote innovation across the industry. They will tackle technology areas identified by industry, through the Automotive Council, as the most strategically important challenges facing the sector today.
Transport Minister Norman Baker said:
“These innovative projects will help to strengthen the UK’s position at the vanguard of low carbon technology. Winning projects include electric vehicles themselves as well as advances in battery technology. This progress across the board has great potential for job creation and long term benefits for the environment and the economy.”
The £16 million Evoque programme was also launched at the show. It will design and develop hybrid and electric vehicle powertrain systems. The project, which will receive nearly £9 million of funding from the Technology Strategy Board, will be undertaken by a consortium led by Jaguar Land Rover with 11 other partners, including SMEs and universities. The resulting vehicles will be based on the Range Rover Evoque.
Business Minister Michael Fallon said:
“This is a groundbreaking project that brings together major strengths in automotive businesses, innovative SMEs and leading universities. It demonstrates the power of the collaborative approach encouraged by the Technology Strategy Board and the importance of supporting innovative RD to help bring about future manufacturing and growth.
"As we set out in our automotive industrial strategy, there are huge opportunities
for us from being a world-leader in new technologies.”
A further competition to promote innovative approaches to automotive supply chain development also opens today. Entitled Building an Automotive Supply Chain of the Future, it has been developed in collaboration with the Automotive Council. It will support collaborative RD for products and systems that are strong candidates for industrialisation. A total of £10 million in grants is available.
This competition is expected to act as a feeder for the Advanced Propulsion Centre announced in July as part of the Automotive Sector industrial Strategy.
