Smaller firms to drive low carbon vehicle development

Representatives from Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, MIRA, Lotus Engineering, the Office of Low Emissions Vehicles (OLEV), Unipart and Tata discussed topics ranging from greening the supply chain to technological developments at the event arranged by the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS). The breadth of opportunities open to businesses were highlighted, with light-weighting, recyclability, battery and charging innovation, hydrogen and cross-industry collaboration being cited as key areas of interest to the automotive industry. Nick Fell, vice president of engineering at Tata Motors, said: "Low carbon vehicles are essential for sustainable mobility. At Tata we're implementing a multi-pronged approach using a variety of technologies that are tailored to the differing demands of private, public and commercial vehicles." It was clear, he went on, that small and agile companies were likely to come up with the cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions that organisations like Tata are looking for. Richard Bruges, head of innovation at Unipart Logistics, believed that companies that would do well out of the developing low carbon vehicle market were those that were creating new and innovative products. "The problem they face is in then bridging the credibility gap in order to meet the needs, and get the attention of, OEMs and first tier suppliers. Unipart is currently in the advanced planning stages of a programme that will help solve this problem," he went on. Doug Cross, technical director at Flybrid Systems, whose company has developed a unique flywheel energy regeneration and storage system advised other emerging companies not to go overboard on securing intellectual property protection, keeping some things as know-how was one of the key ways for innovative companies not only to reduce additional costs, but also to retain value within the business, he said. David Paul, business development manager at Antonov, which has developed a unique three speed power-shift transmission for electric vehicles, said his company was experiencing phenomenal demand for the product and saw huge market potential, especially in the commercial vehicle fleet and public transport sectors where the cost of ownership made electric vehicles attractive even without subsidy.