The UK’s Advanced Propulsion Center (APC) announced almost £92 million (US$127 million) in combined government and industry funding for four electric and hydrogen mobility projects, aiming to tackle range anxiety and find solutions to decarbonize commercial and heavy-duty transport.

The four projects are:

REECorner for EVs; £41.2 million (US$57 million) total project investment (£12.5 million (US$17.3 million) through APC). The project will develop and manufacture assembly technology for REEcorners for use in electric light commercial vehicles (e-LCVs) and mobility-as-a-service applications. The funding will allow REE to facilitate mass production of its REEcorner technology and electric vehicle platforms including engineering design, validation, verification and testing and product homologation.

REE’s fully- flat, ultra-modular EV platforms are designed to offer superior payload capacity by providing more room for carrying passengers, cargo and batteries and enhanced body design flexibility and autonomous capability.

BMW-UK-BEV; £26.2 million (US$36 million) total project investment (£12.8 million (US$17.7 million) funding through APC). The project aims to develop the BMW Group’s largest battery pack to deliver superior performance at competitive costs and will further develop electric vehicle technology, enabling enhanced performance and emission savings.

The BRUNEL project; £14.6 million (US$20 million) total project investment (£7.2 million (US$10 million) funding through APC). The project will be a catalyst to accelerate the development of hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines (H₂-ICE). Cummins will oversee a consortium of leading ICE sub-system suppliers, focused on medium- and heavy-duty engines for trucks and construction equipment.

The project will make a major contribution to increasing UK self-reliance in the emerging hydrogen economy and a significant uplift in the UK-sourced ICE supply chain. A key deliverable will be to demonstrate that tailpipe CO₂ emissions can be virtually eliminated while retaining diesel-like levels of performance.

Project CELERITAS; £9.7 million (US$13.4 million) total project investment (£4.8 million (US$6.6 million) funding through APC). Project CELERITAS will develop ultra-fast charging battery cell and pack for electric and fuel cell hybrid vehicles to accelerate their market acceptance by addressing consumer concerns over charge time.

The technology being developed is targeting to enable a typical BEV to be charged in 12 minutes and for fuel cell vehicles, will enable a fast response battery pack to facilitate an optimized fuel cell system saving size and mass of the system and providing a significant improvement to the overall vehicle efficiency.

CELERITAS will also develop the UK supply chain to allow UK battery electric-vehicle and mild-hybrid electric vehicle manufacturers to achieve post-Brexit requirements of more than 50% parts sourced from UK suppliers within three years.