Ultra-light Gordon Murray platform wins £11m government funding

The government has awarded the Gordon Murray Group (GMG) a share of an £88 million innovation fund to aid development of an 'ultra-lightweight' vehicle platform. The Windlesham-based firm – named after its founder, Formula 1 engineering legend Gordon Murray – is one of 46 UK companies to land a portion of the fund through the government-backed Advanced Propulsion Centre's Collaborative R&D competition. GMG will share around a quarter of the total pot (£22.5m, including an £11m government grant) with Surrey-based Protean Electric, a developer of in-wheel motors for electric vehicles. GMG will use the funding to support the development of a new "ultra-lightweight vehicle platform for future vehicles", dubbed M-Lighten, which Autocar understands will not be exclusively for electric vehicles. It hasn't given any details of the platform, nor said what specifically it will be used for, but strategy and business director Jean-Philippe Launberg said that one aim is "to make cars significantly more energy-efficient to build and run, contributing to the UK's decarbonisation". He added: "Furthermore, the extra lightweighting we will unlock through M-Lighten directly enhances the already legendary dynamics of our cars. It’s driving perfection taken to the next level." Since Murray founded GMG in 2017, it has revealed two V12-engined supercars (the T50 and T33), established its Windlesham headquarters and announced major growth plans that centre on developing EVs for global car firms. In 2022, Autocar reported that GMG was working on a pair of electric SUVs (one for a third party) with a focus on keeping weight as low as possible while producing them in the most efficient way. Murray previously revealed his company was working on a “revolutionary, lightweight, ultra-efficient electric vehicle architecture” that would first underpin “a little SUV with a compact delivery-van derivative”. GMG also previously confirmed that it was working on a "very noisy" hybrid sports car. It's likely this new government funding will go towards productionising the platform that will underpin these future models. No further details of the platform have been given in the government's announcement, beyond the confirmation that it's a monocoque structure destined for "a portfolio of class-leading future vehicles". Protean Electric meanwhile said the funding would support it "to continue to lead electric vehicle innovation from our UK development centre". The firm makes in-wheel motors that are said to allow for more precise control over vehicles while doing away with the need for axles, driveshafts and subframes, thereby reducing mass and allowing smaller batteries to be fitted. UK firm Bedeo has used Protean's motors in an electric Land Rover Defender conversion, which is said to weigh roughly the same as the original car despite featuring a large 75kWh battery pack. GMG and Protean are just two of the companies that have been awarded Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) funding for the 'rapid' development of automotive projects. The other 44 are either technology start-ups focusing on decarbonisation technologies, collaborative R&D projects or projects "exploring zero-tailpipe-emission vehicle technologies within the niche vehicle sector". Pointing to the investment in EV battery development projects in particular, the APC highlighted that the UK is forecast to need 110GWh of annual EV battery output by 2030 - the equivalent of six 'gigafactories'. "Recent gigafactory announcements in the UK by [Nissan partner] AESC and [JLR owner] Tata Group have built excitement about the potential to create a new, dynamic and highly skilled battery industry in the UK," it said, adding that some 270,000 jobs could be supported by the EV and battery industry in the run-up to 2040. Other firms to be awarded funding include Equipmake, for an electric fire engine; Triumph Motorcycles, for a new software stack; Wrightbus, for a new electric bus demonstrator; and Nyobolt, which is working to certify its innovative lightweight battery anode technology.