The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has welcomed the news that £25 million in government funding has been allocated to the winners of the Technology Strategy Board’s  Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator competition. 

Highlighting the future direction of the UK, each consortia will achieve a share of £25 million in funding as part of an ongoing commitment to accelerate the introduction of low carbon vehicles.

The competition was created by the TSB to act as a catalyst for industry, the public sector and academia to come together to create low emission vehicles and innovative technologies for powering them. It is the biggest project of its kind to date and shows real technology that will be available in the next six to 18 months.

Winning consortia details:

  • Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Demonstrators (CABLED) – 13 organisations led by Arup and includes Advantage West Midlands, Jaguar Land Rover, Mitsubishi/Colt, Mercedes-Benz/Smart, Tata Motors, LTI and Microcab industries, E.ON and three Midland’s universities.
  • Electric Vehicle Accelerated Development in the North East (EVADINE) – consists of Nissan, Smith Electric Vehicles in partnership with LTI, AVID Vehicles, Liberty Electric Cars, Newcastle University and One North East.
  • Ford Focus Battery Electric Vehicle – consortium of Ford, Scottish and Southern Energy and Strathclyde University to provide prototype vehicles and a charging infrastructure in and around Hillingdon, Middlesex during 2010.
  • London South East Bid - Smart has been trialling 100 smart electric cars since 2007 with partner companies across the country. Additional cars will be brought to the UK in early 2010 when Smart will be carrying out an important trial with the support of the Technology Strategy Board, working with a partner organisations including EDF Energy, Elektromomitve, Greater London Authority, and Westminster City Council.
  • Mini E Research Project - Consortium includes BMW Group, Scottish and Southern Energy and Oxford Brookes University’s Sustainable Vehicle Engineering Centre. It will enable the Mini E to be introduced and tested on British roads by a mixture of private, corporate and public sector drivers before the end of 2009.
  • The Allied Vehicles Project - aims to design, test and bring to production 40 battery electric cars by October 2009, via partners Allied Vehicles, Glasgow City Council, ScottishPower, Axeon and Strathclyde University.
  • PHV – involves Toyota and EDF Energy and aims to pave the way to full commercialisation of plug-in hybrid vehicles. Toyota, intends to lease up to 20 plug-in hybrid vehicles to existing Toyota Prius fleet customers from mid 2010, predominately within London, for a period of three years.
  • EEMS Accelerate - will put 21 cutting edge high specification electric sports cars on the road for 12 months. AEA, an energy, climate change and data management consultancy, will lead the consortium, with electric vehicles produced by four UK automotive partners: Delta Motorsport, Ecotricity cars, Westfield Sports cars and Lightning Car Company.