Green car technology boost as government grants £91.7m to decarbonisation projects

The government has today announced more than £90m of funding for projects aiming to develop new green automotive technologies.

The funding, which comes through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), sees £91.7m contributed by the government and industries to support the development of low carbon technology.

Four projects have received the funding- BMW-UK-BEV in Oxford, Project CELERITAS in Birmingham, the BRUNEL project in Darlington and REEcorner in Nuneaton - and are expected to save a total of almost 32 million tonnes of carbon emissions, as well as safeguard more than than 2,700 jobs across the country.

The projects include the development of an electric battery with a longer driving range, the creation of new “ultra-fast” charging batteries that could charge in 12 minutes, the development of a zero-emission, hydrogen-fueled engine to help decarbonise heavy goods vehicles, and the redesign of commercial electric vehicles.

Lord Grimstone, minister for investment, commented: “By investing tens of millions in the technology needed to decarbonise our roads, not only are we working hard to end our contribution to climate change, but also ensuring our automotive sector has a competitive future that will secure thousands of highly-skilled jobs.

“Seizing the opportunities that arise from the global green automotive revolution is central to our plans to build back greener, and these winning projects will help make the widespread application and adoption of cutting-edge, clean automotive technology a reality.”