APC funds 12 projects from its Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator (ARMD) competition

The Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) has selected the winners of its Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator (ARMD) Competition, hailing it a huge success.  

Launched in June, the aim of the fast–start competition was to support UK Industry continuation with R&D after the COVID-19 pandemic and further accelerate the transition to zero emission vehicles. 

The programme, designed as a green recovery support initiative, was conceived and launched within just two months and received 50 applications, out of which 12 exciting demonstrator projects have been funded. The outputs will be displayed at the Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle show in September 2021. All projects have been contracted in record time to maximise the benefit to Industry and have now commenced. Once successfully concluded, the 12-month projects will be used to seed future development programmes nationwide as well as overseas investment into the UK.  

The small-scale collaborative projects are being led by a range of OEMs and SMEs, focusing on products and processes across energy storage & management, power electronics, electric machines, lightweighting and hydrogen. They will demonstrate a range of digitalisation techniques including the creation of “digital twins” to advance the development of each project’s prototypes or processes, covering vehicles ranging from passenger cars and buses to all-terrain vehicles and LCVs.  

The winning projects and the organisations leading them are: 

• Bamford Bus Company – Next Generation New Energy Single Deck Bus Technology Demonstrator
• Delta Motorsport Limited – TrueREEV 
• Dolphin N2 Limited – RE-ARMD: Recuperated Engine – Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator 
• Electrified Automation Limited – AIMS: Artificial Intelligence in Stator Manufacturing Solutions
• Empel Systems Limited – Vehicle Demonstrator Showcasing Cost Effective Electrification for Demanding Duty Cycles
• Epropelled Limited – SEEMS: Smart Efficient Electric Machine Systems  
• Ford Motor Company – FCVGen1.0  
• Jaguar Land Rover Limited – PREPARE: Propulsion system optimisation through prediction and machine learning 
• Lotus Cars Limited – LEVA: Lightweight Electric Vehicle Architecture
• Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK Limited – NABCO: Nissan Automated Battery Charging & Optimisation
• Silver Power Systems Limited – REDTOP: Real-time Electrical Digital Twin Operating Platform
• The Global Vehicle Trust – eOX: Electric powertrain demonstration for OX all-terrain truck for developing world markets 

Zoe Hall, Head of Competitions and Projects, from the APC said:

The competition has been a great success and we’re delighted to support these aspirational projects, which will help contribute to a thriving future in UK Industry. The whole process, along with the review of so many applications, has proved extremely beneficial in showcasing the continued demand for R&D support in this space.

As part of the application process, entrants needed to demonstrate how a grant for their project would result in accelerated development of their product and a potential route to market. Combined with potential for scalability or providing a competitive advantage for the UK against other competing markets the projects needed to demonstrate significantly improved and low emission technology in order to support the UK market’s transition to Zero.