Government announces establishment of £13m UK vehicle battery R&D centre
Thu 06 September 2012
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The Government has announced the creation of a new Government and industry-funded ‘UK Energy Storage R&D Centre’ for the advancement of electric and hybrid vehicle batteries.
The Centre, to be based within the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult at the University of Warwick, will be co-funded by Government (£9m) and industry (£4m),and will aim to benefit from the burgeoning electric and hybrid vehicle battery market, predicted to be worth £250m for the UK by 2020, and strengthen expertise in electrochemistry.
Announcing the initiative at Cenex's Low Carbon Vehicle 2012 event, Business Minister Michael Fallon said: “(The new Centre) will put the UK in a much stronger, competitive position to capitalise on a growing worldwide market for low carbon vehicles, alongside other world leaders in the field including the United States, Japan and Germany.
"This £13 million facility will help accelerate the development of battery cells for the next generation of vehicles, is a vital investment in the future of the automotive sector. It complements over £5.5 billion that global vehicle manufacturers have committed to UK projects in the last 18 months.”
The Centre will initially prioritise the development of batteries for low and ultra-low carbon vehicles, but could in future extend to energy storage for other modes of transport, such as commercial and off-road vehicles, rail and shipping. It will focus on the development of a new generation of high performance batteries designed to be more economic and stable, yet boast higher energy density levels than those currently available on the market. Alternative energy storage technologies such as fuel cells could also be investigated at the Centre.
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