The government has awarded funding to 20 net zero tech projects including hydrogen-powered off-road vehicles, a lithium scale-up plant and electric vehicle (EV) battery systems.
The UK will provide £89m of funding to drive forward its goal of becoming a world leader in zero-emissions vehicle technology.
The funding package includes four collaborative R&D projects, five scale-up projects to assess if businesses in the automotive sector are ready for growth, and seven feasibility studies to prepare projects to develop large-scale manufacturing facilities in the UK.
The initiatives include Aston Martin’s plans to develop a luxury battery EV platform and Perkins’ project to develop a hydrogen-hybrid integrated power system for off-road vehicles.
It is estimated that the projects combined will ‘create or safeguard’ more than 4,700 jobs while saving up to 65 million tonnes of CO2 from being emitted over the next decade.
The funding has been awarded through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC). The government will provide £45.2m of this investment, backed by a further £42.7m from the automotive industry.
“Together with industry, we’re providing a huge £89m of funding to drive 20 groundbreaking net zero tech projects, which will help grow the economy and create UK jobs in the industries of the future,” said Nusrat Ghani, the UK minister for Industry and Economic Security.
“From net zero tractors to cutting-edge battery projects, we’re taking decisive action to back the UK’s innovators and ensure we remain at the forefront of zero-emission vehicle technology.”
Ian Constance, chief executive at the APC, said the awards coincided with the APC’s 10th anniversary. “We have seen over £1.4bn of investment into automotive projects since the APC was set up, and I am proud of the impact that we have made here in the UK.
“This latest announcement includes a diverse set of original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs) and suppliers that demonstrate the strength of UK automotive. They will further add to our portfolio of innovative projects and continue to drive the UK to deliver on its net zero ambition.”
In addition, the government will also award 12 projects £11.3m of funding via the second instalment of the SuRV (Scale-up Readiness Validation) competition and the fourth round of the APC’s Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) feasibility studies competition.
Green Lithium’s planned lithium plant in Teesside and Ilika’s solid state battery technology endeavour are two of the initiatives to receive this funding.
