New funding available to fast-track green industrial transformation

• Advanced Propulsion Centre opens funding programme for feasibility studies into the future of electric vehicle manufacturing
• Part of the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan to ‘Build Back Better’
• Funding will be awarded from the Government-backed Automotive Transformation Fund

As part of the Prime Minister’s recent announcement of nearly £500 million investment in accelerating the UK’s transition to electric vehicles, the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), is welcoming a new round of applications for projects looking to scale-up the industrialisation of low-carbon emission vehicle technologies and their associated upstream supply chains.

Awarded as part of the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF), the money will fund feasibility studies that evaluate the viability of developing large-scale manufacturing facilities, advanced manufacturing processes and product manufacturing scale-up for a future automotive supply chain.

Successful projects will need to demonstrate how their study outputs could de-risk scaling up innovative technologies across the low-carbon automotive supply chain, remove the technical or commercial barrier to electric vehicle manufacturing in the UK and support the overall aim of the Automotive Transformation Fund in establishing a competitive and sustainable UK supply chain.

Julian Hetherington, Director of Automotive Transformation at the APC says:

The automotive industry is at a crucial turning point as it transitions to low-carbon vehicle architectures. The APC, through our Automotive Transformation Fund, will drive significant capital investment to support the delivery of a zero-carbon emissions future and ensure the UK has a commercially viable and sustainable supply chain.

This latest call for applicants follows the successful inaugural competition from earlier this year which resulted in funding for 31 feasibility studies that will be looking into a broad scope of advanced manufacturing processes and product scale-up. By funding feasibility studies, we aim to support companies in de-risking the transition as they look to advance their future product development and manufacturing processes.’

Launched in July 2020, the ATF builds on the significant R&D base supported through the APC since 2013, helping to form the last part of the bridge from R&D into industrialisation at scale. The programme can provide support for investment in key electrified vehicle technology areas such as batteries, fuel cells, motors, drives and power electronics, and crucially their upstream supply chains – the key to enabling global competitiveness.