Two County Durham businesses and a company in Newcastle are to benefit from a share of £43.7m joint industry and Government funding. The boost supports the development of the latest green auto tech, including electric motorbikes and off-road vehicles.
Northern Lithium, in Durham, will be provided funding to prove the case for a £120 million investment to establish large-scale, sustainable lithium extraction from brines, and the process and supply of this, in the region. Lithium is required to produce rechargeable batteries used in products like mobile phones.
Another Durham business, Weardale Lithium, will receive funding to develop an investment-ready business case for the extraction of lithium from geothermal brines in County Durham. Meanwhile, INEX Microtechnologies in Newcastle will receive funding to develop business plans, to supply the UK automotive industry with Compound Semiconductor devices, used in vehicle electronics.
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Two projects have been awarded funding through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) Collaborative Research and Development competition, which supports the development of innovative low-carbon automotive technology and will help propel the UK in the global race to secure electric vehicle supply chains.
The projects, in the West Midlands and Warwickshire, are set to secure more than 550 jobs and save 27.6 million tonnes of CO2 - the equivalent of removing the lifetime emissions of 1.1 million cars from the road.
Minister for Investment Lord Grimstone said: "This funding, delivered through the Government-backed Advanced Propulsion Centre, will support UK businesses at the cutting edge of the automotive industry to trial the very latest tech, from the development of electric motorbikes to off-road trucks.
"Supporting these strategically important technologies lays the path for our electric vehicle sector to compete on a global scale, driving jobs and growth nationwide whilst also creating cleaner, more sustainable modes of transport."
In addition, early-stage proposals that could bolster the UK electric vehicle supply chain have also been awarded funding to research, prove or enhance the case for their scale-up, with the potential to create further jobs throughout the country.
19 feasibility studies will be backed with £9.4 million in matched Government-industry money through the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF). Areas to be investigated include the development of EV battery components and the viability of using UK-sourced critical minerals.
The ATF was created to accelerate the development of an electric vehicle supply chain, enabling UK-based manufacturers to scale up production in strategically important technologies. The ATF is delivered by the APC to support capital and late-stage R&D investments.
Ian Constance Chief Executive at the APC says: "The projects receiving today’s investment highlight the breadth of technologies needed to help the UK accelerate to net-zero emissions. They’re reimagining not just vehicles, but transport in general."
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