UK APC awards US$77M to seven low-carbon transportation R&D projects
11 April 2017
The UK Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) has awarded £62 million (US$77 million) from its sixth round of funding to projects led by BMW Motorsport, New Holland Agriculture, Jaguar Land Rover, Williams Advanced Engineering, Penso Consulting, Ford Motor Company and Westfield Sportscars, to develop innovative low carbon transportation technology in the UK.
Projects cover a wide range of innovations, which will are intended to help the UK to become a global leader in low emissions technology. They include the development of an affordable hybrid powertrain for niche vehicle applications, such as autonomous pods, as well as a project to address significant gaps in the UK electrification supply chain. Projects include:
BMW Motorsport Ltd will collaborate with Delta Motorsport and WMG at University of Warwick to design, develop and produce power-dense batteries in the UK, one of the missing links in the global roadmap for the widespread adoption of all kinds of electric vehicles.
Jaguar Land Rover is leading a consortium of UK advanced manufacturers, technology companies and universities to develop world-beating new lightweight vehicle technology, designed to enable reduced emissions while maintaining the performance of exciting new cars and SUVs in the future.
Williams Advanced Engineering Limited and partners will develop bespoke, high-performance, cost-competitive batteries for high-performance low- to medium-volume applications. This project will focus on design for manufacture, recycling and reuse and making significant CO2 savings.
Penso Consulting Ltd will lead a project to anchor complex composite structure manufacturing capability in the UK.
Ford Motor Company and its partners will work on a project to develop combined system optimization which will then be available for wider dissemination within the industry.
Westfield Sportscars Limited will lead a consortium that will deliver an affordable, compact, hybrid powertrain for niche vehicle applications, which will be engineered and produced in the UK and exported through the company’s global retail network.
New Holland Agriculture, a brand of CNH Industrial N.V. will bring together a consortium to improve the performance, autonomy and efficiency of the brand’s concept natural gas tractor. This will aim to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of agricultural tractors used on farms and within the wider community.
The APC was established as commitment by government and industry to ensure the UK is at the forefront of advanced technology developments in the automotive industry. By 2023, it will have facilitated £1 billion (US$1.24 billion) of investment in UK automotive projects, with the aim of saving 50 million tonnes CO2 and safeguarding 30,000 jobs.
Artemis hydraulic hybrids can reduce automotive and rail fuel use to half or less as they proved years ago; now the money should be spent to introduce laws that make this use required. Parry People Movers did the same for rail transport. The ZEBRA battery was developed for automobiles in the UK and all that was needed to reduce costs was mass production and use in automobiles and now homes. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 11 April 2017 at 03:18 AM