TSB announces winners of £10m EV technology challenge; new initiative on electric recharging
Thu 10 September 2009
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The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has announced the winners of a £10 million competition for the development of innovative approaches to electric and hybrid vehicle design. In a separate announcement, the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has launched an £11m initiative designed to make it easier for drivers to charge plug-in vehicles in a number of major UK cities. Both announcements were made at Low Carbon Vehicles 2009, held at Millbrook Proving Ground.
The TSB’s announcement is the first competition to run under the Board’s Integrated Delivery Programme, which will provide £200 million for investment programmes for low carbon vehicles. About 30 companies, which will also invest about £10m in the initiative, and seven universities will take part in the electric development projects.
John Laughlin, the TSB’s Low Carbon Vehicles programme manager, said: "A major barrier to the widespread acceptance of electric and hybrid vehicles is the difficulty in balancing the range of the vehicle against the available stored energy. The work we are funding will focus on developing ultra-efficient electric and hybrid vehicle motive and ancillary systems that will make the best use of this energy.” (TSB press release)
In a separate announcement, the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) chief executive David Clarke introduced the Joined-Cities Plan which aims to coordinate the introduction of recharging facilities and enhance the versatility and ease of recharging. Other aspects of the ETI project will determine what it will take to reach a self-sustaining mass market.
The £11m scheme by the public/privateETI aims to assist in the development of a standardised national network for plug-in electric vehicles. The ETI will work with London, Birmingham, Oxford, Coventry, Milton Keynes, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Newcastle and Glasgow to produce recommendations on where motorists may best use plug-in vehicles.
Speaking at Low Carbon Vehicles 2009 Lord Drayson, the science and innovation minister, said that the low carbon agenda presented an opportunity for a “renaissance” of the UK automotive industry, and that the government’s priority “must be to make the world’s leading ultra-low carbon car industry in the UK”.
Lord Drayson said that the new Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV), which will bring government departments together in coordinating government policy around low carbon vehicles, would have a clear programme to encourage demand and support supply of low carbon vehicles. He added that: “OLEV’s direction has not been determined from within government. It is industry that has set the priorities. Through the New Automotive Innovation and Growth Team, industry has worked with the government to identify business opportunities and the necessary drivers of change.”
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