Low carbon winners revealed at Cenex-LCV2019

The winners of a low carbon vehicle technology research development competition have been announced at Cenex-LCV2019. They will now share a £2.5m investment to support their projects.

Fourteen new projects will receive the grant funding from the Niche Vehicle Network competition, collectively supported by Innovate UK, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC).

All of the projects will receive 50% of their project costs and will cover the balance of the project costs with their own resources. All projects are collaborative between at least three UK-based companies, with the lead company a UK SME or Micro company active in the UK low carbon niche vehicle technology sector.

Announcing the winners at LCV 2019 David Tozer, head of land transport at innovate UK, said, ‘The breadth of innovation awarded funding by the Niche Vehicle Network is testament to a hugely dynamic and forward thinking sector.

‘High quality projects covering everything from battery innovation, hybridisation, lightweighting and electric motors showcase the best the niche sector has to offer. It also continues to build what is a strong pipeline of technology development in support of the UK’s future of mobility. I wish the projects every success and look forward seeing the outputs next year.’

Jon Beasley, director of technology and projects at the Advanced Propulsion Centre, added, ‘We continue to see that members of the Niche Vehicle Network, and SMEs generally, contribute to the success of the UK automotive industry. Their speed of development, lower restriction regarding legacy programmes and flexibility regarding market implementation allow for the new technologies to be accelerated to market compared with generally shorter development cycles.

‘The opportunity to demonstrate real-world applications through specialised or niche vehicles provides invaluable market feedback and knowledge that can be used to support products for future higher volume applications and markets.’

A full list of winners can be found at www.nichevehiclenetwork.co.uk