Government announces funding for electric vehicle technology

£89 million of funding has been awarded to 20 net zero technology projects, including hydrogen-powered off-road vehicles, a new lithium scale-up plant and new EV battery systems.

The projects include include 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.

£45.2 million of this investment comes from Government, through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC), backed by a further £42.7 million from the automotive industry.

Minister for industry and economic eecurity Nusrat Ghani said: "Together with industry, we’re providing a huge £89 million 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.

"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."

Winners of the latest collaborative R&D competition funding include Aston Martin, who are accelerating the development of a luxury battery electric vehicle platform and Perkins, who will develop a net-zero, hydrogen-hybrid integrated power system for offroad vehicles.

The projects are estimated to create or safeguard more than 4,700 jobs in total and save nearly 65 million tonnes of CO2 being emitted over the next decade as a result of the work undertaken by these four R&D projects alone.