Jaguar Land Rover and McLaren have been awarded part of an £84 million fund to develop new low-carbon propulsion technology.
The grants from the Advanced Propulsion Centre will fund the development of next-generation low-carbon vehicles in a consortium led by Jaguar Land Rover and a McLaren Automotive project working on new combustion engines. The next-gen engines will focus on improving thermal efficiency and use a modular combustion system, lightweight castings and composite materials.
There's little information about either project at this stage. Both have yet to get under way and it’ll be some time before the public sees the resultant technology in road cars.
The money comes from the government and industry - £42 million from each - and this round of grants is the latest in a 10-year £1 billion investment programme to advance the UK’s expertise in propulsion technology. The Advanced Propulsion Centre is a private company based at the University of Warwick. It was formed to administrate and enable the programme.
Others to have benefited from the grants include Turner Powertrain, a subsidiary of Caterpillar, which is working on a new type of transmission and energy storage system for construction equipment. A grant has also been awarded to specialist firm Dearman, which is developing zero-emissions technology for combined cooling and power applications, such as refrigerated delivery vehicles.
Phill Tromans
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Really?
I guess it depends upon how one defines "low carbon" - but since the article only mentions combustion engines, it's likely we're talking about slightly more efficient, fossil-fuel burning 2.5 tonne SUVs.
Just what the world needs.
Should the taxpayer really be co-funding this?
I suspect,