£60m for UK automotive projects
The Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) has announced the successful applicants of the latest Collaborative Research and Development funding round.
A range of automotive projects cover demonstrators, feasibility studies and projects for smaller SME companies cover advanced electronics, smart software systems and design tools to sustainable materials. A grant for £29.6m from the UK Department for Business and Trade is part of the £59.9m (€71m) project funding, which includes Protean Electric, Jaguar Land Rover and Cummins.
“The benefits of working in a collaborative environment that includes academic institutions and small companies, go far beyond the financial support offered, and I look forward to seeing the results of these projects in a few years’ time,” said Ian Constance, CEO of APC.
Vehicle production
HexaGaN – GaN & SiC Power Modules for Multiphase Embedded Inverters is led by Microchip Technology in Caldicot, Wales. This £5m project is developing high-efficiency power modules for next-generation inverter systems and addressing key gaps in the UK’s power electronics supply chain.
SCALE-UP – Sustainable Composite for Automotive and Low-Emission UK Production – is developing high-volume application of lightweight and circular composite technologies for the automotive industry at Jaguar Land Rover.
The £11m PULSE – Power electronics Upscale for Localisation and Sustainable Electrification – project at Protean Electric is developing UK manufacturing capabilities for power-electronics products.
The £5m PROJECT UNITY at Cummins is optimising materials for hydrogen powertrain products with a digital analysis tool to enable the design of highly reliable and durable components.
Demonstrators
Up to £18.3m is aimed at taking 11 new vehicle prototypes from design to demonstrator
The successful applicants of the third round of the Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator competition (ARMD3) now have 12 months to deliver a product, system or vehicle.
These include: the development of electric trucks for the NHS and Royal Mail, electrically cooled last-mile delivery for Sainsbury’s supermarket, premium e-motorcycles, fire engines, buses, next-generation powertrains, and material recycling.
“The Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator delivers cutting-edge technology in a short period of time,” said Constance. “With £18.3 million of investment from both industry and government, these 11 projects will not only demonstrate the strength and breadth of the zero-emission automotive sector in the UK, but hopefully the acceleration of these to commercialisation. We will certainly see concepts that will go into real-world every-day vehicles, helping the UK achieve its net zero goals.”
- Metier Technologies is developing subsystems for onboard hydrogen fuel systems, accelerating zero-emission vehicle adoption at reduced cost and improved reliability and quality.
- Intelligent Energy is building a 200kW+ regulated voltage output fuel cell system designed for heavy-duty vehicles.
- Altilium Metals is developing and validating battery cells containing materials recovered from battery waste.
- Ram Innovations is demonstrating highly efficient power electronics systems and sub-systems utilising GaN (gallium nitride) devices with improved efficiency and enhanced thermal performance.
- Equipmake is creating a novel ‘daisy chain’ energy management system to enable firefighting with fully battery-electric fire engines.
- Botanic Energy is replacing diesel-driven refrigeration with energy-efficient thermoelectric systems, for Sainsburys to offer last-mile delivery with zero-emission refrigerated vehicles.
- MAGTEC is prototyping next-generation drivelines for electric trucks to be trialled by NHS Wales and Royal Mail.
- Triumph Motorcycles is establishing a second-generation Triumph electric motorcycle software platform.
- Zircotecis developing and testing ceramic coatings for lightweight battery enclosures to improve thermal and electrical insulation for both vehicle safety and efficiency.
- Wrightbus is developing a next-generation, lightweight and energy-efficient battery-electric bus.
Feasibility studies
A total investment of £4.6 million for feasibility studies covers battery dry anode materials,
“This group of projects aims to demonstrate the opportunity to build a robust UK based EV and battery supply chain, enabling the transition to clean-automotive technologies. ATF grants help to unlock further private investment, which accelerate the UK’s growing zero-emission vehicle sector,” said APC Automotive Transformation Director Julian Hetherington.
Anaphite in Bristol will produce an investment case for the commercialisation and scale- up of Anaphite’s innovative dry coating precursor technology. Dry coating of battery electrodes is less energy intensive than traditional wet coatings and more efficient.
Imerys British Lithium (IBL) in St Austell, Cornwall, is validating commercial opportunities for large-scale lithium production in the UK, using a novel method of extracting high-purity lithium from micaceous granite.
Talga Anode in Cambridge is validating the case to establish a lithium-ion battery anode manufacturing plant in the UK designed to support the circular economy by extracting and repurposing recycled graphite from used batteries and battery-production scrap to use in new battery production.
Altilium in Plymouth wants to develop a new UK greenfield site capable of processing 90,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of end-of-life EV lithium-ion batteries, gigafactory scrap and electronic waste, enabling 30,000tpa of cathode active materials to be recovered and supplied back into the EV battery industry by 2028.
Nyobolt in Cambridge is establishing high-volume production for its proprietary anode material. Establishing this capacity in the UK would represent a key piece of the UK’s automotive battery supply chain and enable the commercialisation of Nyobolt’s ultra-fast-charging battery technology, capable of reducing vehicle charging from hours to minutes.
FluoRok in Oxford is developing a detailed business and project plan to support future investment in a UK-based manufacturing unit for LiPF6, a key material in the Li-ion battery chemical supply chain. LiPF6 is the main Li-ion battery electrolyte salt and is of critical importance as it represents the majority of the materials cost of the electrolyte formulation.
SME projects
14 companies in the UK’s automotive sector have had an investment of over £3 million, including over £2.3 million in government grant funding. Each will receive up to £170,000 and tailored business support through the Technology Developer Accelerator Programme (TDAP) over the next 18 months.
Companies who previously completed the programme have collectively raised over £300 million in private investment.
This is the eighth group to have participated in what has been a successful accelerator for the automotive sector, with companies in previous cohorts having gone on to raise over £300 million in private investment since its launch in 2015.
The new entrants include projects to improve battery performance, battery recycling, advanced manufacturing materials, and wireless charging solutions.
“Congratulations to the latest 14 companies to be selected for our accelerator programme. Alongside my team at the APC, I’m excited to be part of their journey as we discover some of the best cutting-edge green technology in the automotive sector,” said Josh Denne, APC’s Head of Product for Start-up, Scale-up and Investment.
“We will work closely with each recipient to help them with more than just funding; we aim to develop their offering and their business. As previous iterations of this programme have shown, it can lead to greater private investment and commercial success. This is why our intervention at this point in their story can really be a spark for further opportunity and I look forward to seeing how they make the most of that.”
Battery Minerals in London is aiming to help deliver a circular battery supply chain by improving the economics of mineral extraction for battery waste. “Development of recycling processes are essential for the European battery industry and support from the APC will be instrumental in the commercialisation of our novel recycling technology,” said Jacob Carpenter, Commercial Manager of Battery Minerals.
Electric Green in London is developing smart wireless charging system for both the charging infrastructure and the vehicle-side, providing a cost-effective pathway for vehicle manufacturers to factory fit wireless charging.
Enough Energy in London aims to cut battery system cost by half for with second life cell integration and flexible AC and DC power output.
FLIT in Cambridge develops lightweight folding ebikes for urban commuters. “Funding from TDAP will allow FLIT to go beyond just building folding ebikes and instead allow us to develop ebikes that can be refurbished, reused, and recycled as efficiently as possible. This will keep more bikes on the road and will reduce waste,” said Alex Murray, Managing Director of FLIT.
Ionetic in Banbury is a battery pack technology company reducing battery pack development costs up to 10x and tailoring the battery pack design to the customer specification.
Molyon in Cambridge is developing its patented cathode solution which enables next generation high energy density batteries. Molyon’s efforts in lithium-sulfur batteries have shown twice the energy density of lithium-ion batteries on the market, all whilst using more sustainable and low-cost materials. This has drastic implications for drones, high-altitude platform stations, electric vehicles, and electric aviation.
Polaron in St Albans is using generative AI for material development, use microstructural image data to optimise material designs, significantly enhancing the performance, reducing cost, and enhancing sustainability.
Raeon in Cherwell, Oxfordshire is also aiming to cut the development cost and lead time for application-optimised, ‘any shape’ batteries by a factor of 10. Aimed at low-medium volume e-mobility applications, their battery construction approach promises compact cell spacing, with the ability to upgrade to the latest cell mid-production cycle, with minimal tooling costs and development lead times. “Raeon are extremely grateful for the opportunity to accelerate our ‘any shape’ custom battery technology with the APC’s support. The UK e-mobility sector is struggling to adopt battery technology across all vehicle types; motorbikes, boats, robotics etc simply because it is too costly to develop custom, application-optimised batteries. We’re directly addressing that problem with our innovative battery assembly approach,” said Tom Brooks, Co-Founder of Raeon.
TaiSan in London is developing novel quasi-solid-state sodium batteries with proprietary IP in electrolyte and anode materials to reach high energy density. The company has signed a number of initial deals with automotive customers.
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