Innovate UK is opening a competition letting businesses apply for a share of £15 million to support the development of zero emission vehicle technologies and the associated supply chain.

A statement from the government-backed body - part of UK Research and Innovation - said it is seeking to put green technologies at the heart of economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that zero emission vehicle technologies are a key part of the UK’s efforts to meet its carbon reduction targets.

The power electronics, machines and drivers required are also a significant global opportunity for UK manufacturers. The government recently launched the £80 million Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge to help businesses meet this need.

Its aim is to accelerate the UK’s ability to deliver the next generation of electric vehicles, hybrid aircraft, energy generation, smart grids, industrial drives, consumer products, agricultural vehicles, ships, and rail.

The £15 million comes from the fund and from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles to support business research into these new technologies and to support the development of a supply chain.

The competition has two strands.

Strand one makes up to £5 million available to support business-led projects that aim to improve the UK supply chain for power electronics, machines, and drives.

Projects could work on one or more of the following:

• manufacturing process development such as improving productivity, implementing new tools, automating processes, reconfiguring processes to improve productivity or flexibility;
• design for manufacture such as designing or redesigning a product for more efficient production, specification of a manufacturing process, improvements in modelling and simulation software, developments to allow manufacture of products with recycling taken into consideration;
• circular economy approaches such as scale-up of processes for recycling and recovery of materials, lifecycle and embedded carbon analysis, and waste reduction and process energy efficiency; or
• innovative testing and validation such as virtual product validation, and scale-up or automation of testing and validation processes.

Businesses of any size may apply and must work with at least one other organisation. Innovate UK expects projects to range in size between £100,000 and £500,000 and last between three and nine months.

Strand two commits up to £10 million to support feasibility studies and research and development projects looking to develop technologies for zero emission vehicles or that target emissions significantly lower than 75g of CO2 per km. Projects developing electric vehicle charging are also eligible for support.

Projects must build on a previous research project or feasibility study and could work on niche or mainstream vehicles including motorcycles, cars, goods vehicles and emergency vehicles.

Work could include:

• battery technologies;
• electrification of conventional powertrains;
• hybridisation technologies;
• technologies that increase the efficiency of powertrain or auxiliary systems;
• hydrogen technologies;
• range extender technologies; or
• EV charging services including charging solutions, roaming, integration and grid services.

Businesses of any size may apply, and they can work alone or with up to two other organisations, with projects expected to range in size between £100,000 and £500,000 and last up to six months.

For both strands, the competition is open, with a deadline for applications of 29 July.

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