U.K. Makes Investments in Vehicle R&D

The British government has awarded £110 million ($137 million) of funding covering 38 projects to develop and produce systems related to electrified and autonomous vehicles, lightweight materials, recycling and other sustainable technologies.

Some £62 million ($77 million) is earmarked for low-carbon technologies under the U.K.’s Advanced Propulsion Center. The seven research and development programs will be led by BMW Motorsport (power dense EV batteries), CNH Industrial (autonomous natural gas tractors), Ford (system optimization), Jaguar Land Rover (lightweighting), Penso Consulting (composite structure manufacturing), Westfield Sportscars (hybrid-electric powertrains) and Williams Advanced Engineering (high-performance batteries).

Another £31 million ($36.5 million) will go toward developing connected and self-driving car technologies. The 24 projects will be segmented into four categories: vehicle platooning, transportation from the Stockport train station to Manchester Airport, technology platforms for autonomous vehicle systems and multi-surface road applications.

The remaining £17 million ($20 million) will be allotted to seven projects to develop ultra-low and zero-emission vehicles. These will be led by Equipmake, Ford, Great British Sports Cars, JLR, Ricardo, Romax Technology and Wrightbus.