UK providing £92 million for 49 e-mobility projects

Government and industry have together filled a funding pot in Great Britain with 92 million pounds (around 102 million euros) to subsidise 49 concrete electrification projects in the country. The funding program is coordinated by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC).

The aim of the program is to give the economy a boost towards a green and low-CO2 future in the wake of the global pandemic and resulting economic downturn. The funding is targeted at three areas: the subsidisation of feasibility studies; targeted support for a number of promising electrification projects; and the provision of funds for development projects.

Most of the funding recipients are in the first category. Through the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF), 31 projects benefit from investments of £17 million in feasibility studies. Almost half of the studies will focus on the feasibility of expanding production capacity. Nine of the studies will examine the feasibility of large-scale production facilities in the UK and eight will focus on advanced manufacturing processes. Among the prominent recipients are AESC Envision and AMTE Power: the former is considering the construction of a new battery ‘gigafactory‘ at its site next to the Nissan plant in Sunderland. AMTE Power is also exploring the possibility of building a new battery cell factory in Scotland under the keyword Thurso+.

The largest part of the funding will be distributed to the six winners of the APC16 competition who will receive a total of £59 million. The recipients are BSA Company (The Electric BSA Project), Jaguar Land Rover (Advanced Storage Technology Into Reality), European Metal Recycling (Recycling of EV cells from obsolete vehicles at scale), Saietta Group (Saietta Axial Flux Motor Productionisation), AMTE Power (Ultra-powerful cells for Low-emission Transport) and Arrival (Project Next Generation Drive Unit).

In the third sub-sector, twelve development projects in the £16.5 million Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator (ARMD) competition receive funding to bring products and processes in the fields of energy storage and management, power electronics, electrical machines, lightweight construction and hydrogen to market maturity. Each twelve-month project is financed.

The Advanced Propulsion Centre presents all 49 recipients on its website, some with brief descriptions of their respective projects. The 31 companies in the first category are listed here, the six winners of the APC16 competition are listed here and the twelve recipients of the third category are listed here.

apcuk.co.uk, apcuk.co.uk (feasibility study), apcuk.co.uk (APC16), apcuk.co.uk (ARMD)