Environmentally-friendly vehicles one step closer to an everyday reality.

Experts at Loughborough University are to lead a £3.5 million project to bring environmentally-friendly vehicles one step closer to an everyday reality.

The Fundamental Understanding of Technologies for Ultra Reduced Emissions Vehicles (FUTURE) consortium will examine the interaction of components and control systems for electric and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs).  The consortium’s work will develop a set of guidelines and tools to enable design engineers to better understand how components, such as fuel cells, power electronics and control systems of HEVs perform together.

The project consists of six work packages. Two of them are led by Professor Rob Thring and Professor Qing-Chang Zhong, both from Loughborough University, and the other four are led by academics from Imperial, Oxford, Coventry and Cranfield universities.

The Principal Investigator, Professor Rob Thring said: “This important research represents a step forward in the journey towards sustainable transport.  Loughborough is proud of its expertise in the leadership of consortia and co-operation with industry and we look forward to working with respected colleagues from our partner universities on this exciting project.’’

FUTURE is being made possible with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and is one of three major projects that will address fundamental research questions in developing low carbon vehicles.  Funding for the three projects totals £10 million.

The projects have been developed by EPSRC with the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) through the Low Carbon Vehicle Innovation Platform Integrated Delivery Programme.  They were announced by Business Minister Mark Prisk at the opening of a new exhibition at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to showcase UK manufactured low carbon vehicles.

Among the vehicles on show at the exhibition was a hydrogen fuel cell taxi produced by Intelligent Energy.  The company, which was originally a spin-out - born of research from Loughborough University - joined forces with Lotus Engineering, LTI Vehicles and TRW Conekt to produce the ground-breaking vehicle.