Member Article

North East low carbon vehicle projects receive £900k boost to create 100 jobs

Almost £900k investment has been delegated to help five initiatives to push the North East’s credentials in low carbon vehicle technology, that are likely to create over 100 jobs.

Funding from the Collaborative Projects Fund and the Regional Growth Fund aims to help commercialisation of products and services developed in the region.

The projects that will receive funding include:

• Route Monkey’s work with Teesside University and Urban Foresight’s work on software to analyze the usage pattterns of electric vehicles;
• AVID Technology Group Ltd and Newcastle University’s work on developing a DC fan and water pump that will create 46 new jobs.
• Seaward Electronics Ltd and Teesside University’s project to develop an electric vehicles charging point tester, which will create eight jobs
• Sevon Ltd and Wolverine Tube’s development of a novel High Voltage Low Power Inverter that can also improve the efficiency of non-electric vehicles, which will create 25 new jobs
• Hyperdrive and Wylam Professional Services’ (WPS) work to develop products and associated engineering services in data loggers and GPRS enabled control ECUs for automotive, defense, marine and portable power applications.

Dr. Colin Herron, managing director of Zero Carbon Futures, which oversees the fund, said: “This continued investment is great news for the companies directly affected, but crucial for the UK’s ability to develop a comprehensive infrastructure that supports the take-up of low carbon vehicles.

“The electric vehicle (EV) revolution is gathering pace, and the North East is becoming a hub of infrastructure development and subsequent EV adoption. It is vital for projects such as those supported by the Collaborative Projects Fund to continue evolving innovative solutions that help integrate or improve low carbon vehicle technologies.

“For example, one of the successful projects, led by Route Monkey, will develop a software package that analyzes usage patterns of EVs to help work out residual values and optimize the total cost of ownership.

“This will help make EVs appeal to fleet managers who are under increasing pressure to reduce the running costs and carbon footprint of their operations. As EVs are still a new technology there is currently very little information on the long-term value of vehicles and degradation of battery performance, but an accurate forecast of performance reduces leasing companies’ risk and future financing costs.”

The Future Technology Centre, which is owned and managed by Zero Carbon Futures, will be open for business in early 2014 and will drive the UK’s transition to a low carbon future

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .