Prodrive Advanced Technology is proud to be one of twelve recipients to receive a share of a £22.7 million investment in ‘fast-start projects for the accelerated development of automotive products with a potential route to market’. This award share is the result of Prodrive’s successful submission of its EVOLV project into the 2023 Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator competition (ARMD2) from the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (1).
With £11 million in Government support through the APC matched by industry funding in total, Prodrive’s Advanced Technology division, in collaboration with Astheimer Design, will now complete and deliver its EVOLV vehicle concept within 12 months. Prodrive must be ready to launch the demonstrator of its L7e category EV Zero Emission ‘Last Mile’ Delivery vehicle at the 2024 Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle (LCV) show next September.
The EVOLV Last Mile vehicle platform demonstrator (image above) will provide a cubic load capacity comparable to N1 category vehicles in an L7 package. This enables the platform to leverage sales from both L7 and N1 markets, offering a strong total cost of ownership proposition to fleet operators. Further details of the EVOLV project will be announced in 2024.
Dr Iain Roche, CEO Prodrive Advanced Technology:
"We are delighted to receive this funding from the APC to accelerate the development of our EVOLV Last Mile vehicle concept that offers a zero emission L7e platform with a market disrupting total cost of ownership proposition."
Ian Constance, CEO APC, said:
"The Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator competition is a distinct offering from the APC as it sees the development of a new, tangible product in such a short period of time. The successful applicants all have fantastic proposals that now have the green flag to kick-start. In just 12 months we will see the fruits of this £22.7 million investment from both industry and Government. Given the success of the previous round, the dozen projects we’ve funded today will be ones to keep an eye on when they are delivered next year."
Nusrat Ghani, Minister for Industry and Economic Security concludes::
"The UK automotive sector is at the cutting edge of exploiting innovative technologies. These have the potential to create jobs, grow the economy and accelerate how we reach net-zero. This package of funding will help industry and government work together and take decisive action in targeting areas where the UK is leading the way. This government has shown time and time again that we are committed to creating the right conditions to make the UK the best location in the world to manufacture.”
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For Prodrive media information please contact:
Emma Bearpark
Head of Marketing
E: media@prodrive.com
M: +44 (0)7909 778420
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Prodrive
Prodrive is one of the world’s largest and most successful motorsport and technology businesses. Over 500 staff are employed across its Banbury headquarters and composites manufacturing facility in Milton Keynes. While the company is perhaps best known for motorsport, today it is just one part of an organisation that in the last decade has diversified to become a technology business working in a range of sectors and providing a range of services. Within the Prodrive Group, there are four distinct but interconnected business areas: Motorsport, operating race and rally programmes for vehicle manufacturers and global brands; Advanced Technology, providing innovative technology for the automotive, aerospace, defence, and marine sectors; Composites, developing lightweight composite components for the automotive, aerospace and marine sectors; and Brand& developing bespoke clothing and accessories for leading brands.
www.prodrive.com
1 Advanced Propulsion Centre and Award
At APC our role is to help accelerate the transition to a net-zero automotive industry. We collaborate with UK government, the automotive industry and academia to accelerate the industrialisation of technologies, supporting the transition to deliver net-zero emission vehicles.
First launched in 2020 to support UK industry transition to a net-zero automotive supply chain, the Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator competition’s aim was to get innovation into action. The completed demonstrators were unveiled a year later in 2021 at Cenex-LCV Cenex-CAM by Trudy Harrison MP – in her previous role of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport.
For more information visit: www.apcuk.co.uk/news