motoring special 37


Any colour – so long as it’s green?


The change to ‘green’ vehicles has been happening for some time – driven largely by rising fuel costs and the environmental risks of carbon emissions. Ten years ago petrol cars outsold diesel by more than three to one. In 2012, diesel-fuelled cars reached the market share watershed of 50.8%.


Fuel-efficiency, reducing European CO2 emission targets, incentives and cheaper excise duties, have combined to encourage the search for greener automotive options. Now most major global vehicle manufacturers have hybrid, electric plug-in, bio-fuel, or gas-driven options in their ranges.


British buying patterns have been shifting towards smaller, more fuel- efficient models, with “supermini” vehicles taking the largest market share of 35.9% in 2013. And, registrations of hybrid and plug-in cars rose 20.5% to 32,715 vehicles, the SMMT revealed.


In 2012 just 1,262 electric cars were registered, or 1 in every 1,620 cars, despite significant government incentives. As the BDO motor retail team concluded in its latest Motor 150 Report: “Until the cost of the technology comes right down, and the issue of customer range-anxiety can be resolved, we may be some years away from the first electric car traffic jam.”


While the Toyota Prius and Nissan Leaf continue to pioneer green consumer markets, Tesla is resolving such consumer issues in America with its Model S electric vehicle (EV), still expensive, but capable of a 260-mile range in rapid yet smooth silence. It can also recharge in 20 minutes, free at Tesla’s recharging stations conveniently placed on ‘electric highways.’


Actually, Stroud-based Ecotricity began creating its own electric highway network in the UK in 2011. Reading’s landmark Green Park wind vane off the M4 provided one of Ecotricity’s first three EV motorway charging points.


The UK may never be the number one buyer of green vehicles in the world – why would we, we have less drivers than the largest countries – but we do lead the world in the development of new green


automotive technologies. And the motoring race to go green is well underway.


Worldwide, manufacturers are investing billions on green R&D, which is good news for niche engineering and automotive companies in the Thames Valley, several of them now recognised industry innovators.


Award-winning Drayson Racing Technologies, based in Kidlington, is literally in the green ‘fast lane’ having claimed the world electric land speed record at Elvington Airfield, Yorkshire last year, when its Drayson B12/69 EV recorded an average speed of 205.139mph (333.271 kph).


But it’s not just about speed. “This technology is going to be transferring to cars that we drive in the future. It’s a fascinating area because there is more innovation and technology development going on here now than in the past 50 years in the car industry,” says Lord Paul Drayson.


Lightweight motor and battery solutions, wireless charging, materials usage, energy recovery, green performance standards, are all improving fast. Drayson suggests: “...wiithin five years a lot of lab-based technology is going to be ready for use in cars.”


And these are areas in which the UK has the scientific lead, he adds. “Britain is the world leader in motorsport engineering and we also have the technology to be at the forefront of electric motorsport engineering.”


This is important because motorsport is often the pioneering ‘test-track’ for advances in road vehicles. It’s no coincidence that McLaren Automotive, based in Woking, deliberately designed its groundbreaking hybrid petrol/ electric McLaren P1 to be “the best driver’s car on road and track.”


Thatcham-based Xtrac is the world leader in motorsport transmissions and gearing, but it is also involved in the growing green consumer vehicle market. Back in 2006, Xtrac supplied a low-cost gearbox to Zytek for its demonstration diesel-electric hybrid family car. And more recently, as part of the Technology Strategy Board funded REEVolution (range


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MARCH 2014 Lord Paul Drayson with the Drayson B12/69 EV


extended electric vehicle) project, Xtrac supplied the transmissions used in the Infiniti Emerg-E and Lotus Evora 414e hybrid technology demonstrator vehicles displayed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.


Abingdon-based YASA Motors, is a manufacturer of small, light-weight but highly powerful electric motors. YASA’s world leading technology is behind the cake-tin sized electric motor that enabled Drayson Racing’s world electric land speed record. YASA also provides its motors to a range of electric and hybrid road vehicles as well as off-road hybrid applications such as tractors, construction equipment and boats. It recently embarked on a program to scale its production to meet the rise in global demand.


In public transport, Reading Buses boasts one of the greenest bus fleets in the country. Together with Reading Borough Council, the company has invested in the latest fuel technologies. By spring 2014, its fleet will be 48% environmentally friendly with more than 60 gas- powered and all-British hybrid diesel- electric buses. All its other buses run on bio-diesel fuel.


City taxis too are under green development, particularly now Boris Johnson has announced plans requiring all new London taxis to be zero-emission capable from January 1, 2018. Surrey-based Frazer Nash and Ecotive have already launched a range extended electric Metrocab taxi.


LPG gas retrofitting can be a green cost-efficient option says John Waghorn of Nicholson McLaren in Wokingham, specialists in conversions for fleet operators. The company is also currently undertaking ‘real world’ testing of electric vans.


But, the consumer bottom line is that green vehicles still need to become a more attractive option than is currently offered in the motoring market.


As Adrian Moore, technical director of Xtrac, and a member of the Government’s UK Automotive


In association with


Council technology group, explained: “To make them affordable to the average motorist, the high cost of hybrid and electric vehicles will ultimately have to be reduced by ensuring that the technology is cost- effective for the industry to put into higher volume production.”


Billion pound commitment to power future UK auto sector


Last summer the Government and automotive industry announced they would be investing £500 million each over the next 10 years in an Advanced Propulsion Centre to research, develop and commercialise the technologies for vehicles of the future.


Backed by 27 companies in the sector, including supply chain businesses, the commitment is expected to secure at least 30,000 jobs currently linked to producing engines and create many more in the supply chain.


The announcement was made by the business secretary Vince Cable and Professor Richard Parry-Jones, who co-chair the Automotive Council.


Automotive Council members are aiming to recruit more than 7,600 apprentices and 1,700 graduates over the next five years.


“The UK automotive sector has been incredibly successful in recent times, with billions of pounds of investment and new jobs. This has been achieved by government and industry working together,” said Vince Cable.


“With the next generation of vehicles set to be powered by radically different technologies we need to maintain this momentum and act now. Our industrial strategy will ensure we keep on working together to make our automotive industry a world leader.”


and www.businessmag.co.uk


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