OLEV announces winners of £38.2 innovation competition

Light-weighting technology taken from Formula 1 motor racing could soon be used in mainstream family cars after a consortium won a share of a £38.2 million research competition announced by OLEV this month.

 

The F1 consortium project, led by Nissan and Jaguar Land Rover, is one of 130 research projects to receive funding across England with the goal of cutting emissions and improving ULEV efficiency.

 

The light-weighting project aims to use composite materials to reduce the weight of steel components in vehicles by more than 50%. The proposal suggests that these weight reductions could see vehicles such as a plug-in hybrid increase their electric range by 25%.

 

The LowCVP has also won a small portion of the money for Sunamp’s investigation into 'Range-extended refrigerated BEVs for CO2 abatement in fleets' together with partners Routemonkey and Paneltex.

 

The competition announced last September is a combination of £30m from OLEV and £8.2million from Innovate UK, with prototypes from the expected to be unveiled from 2018 onwards.

 

Transport Minister Andrew Jones said: “Our £38 million investment will help Britain become a world leader in this exciting and valuable technology sector, creating skilled jobs of the future as part of our long-term economic plan. It will also mean lower running costs for motorists and less fuel consumption, which is good for the environment and our economy.

 

“This competition continues our £600 million commitment by 2020 to support the uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles, making journeys cheaper and greener, ensuring the nation is fit for the future.”

 

Other winners include Sheffield based Faradion Ltd whose consortium are investigating the potential for sodium-ion batteries, which would be significantly cheaper than mainstream lithium ion batteries used currently.

 

A Nottingham based consortium is developing ways to replace steel materials used to protect car passengers with lighter materials.

 

The full list of winners can be viewed here.