The North East’s Switch EV electric vehicle trial is one of eight national trials of electric & hybrid vehicles funded by the Technology Strategy Board’s £25m Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator Programme. This programme is part of the national strategy to reduce carbon emissions from car and light commercial vehicle use which currently makes up 13% of the UK’s carbon emissions. The programme’s primary objective is to understand what barriers there are to mass adoption of ultra low carbon vehicles such as electric cars. Switch EV is a consortium lead by Nissan which sees Newcastle University, AVID Vehicles, Liberty Electric Cars, Smith Electric Vehicles and Simon Bailes Peugeot working together to deliver 44 new and innovative electric vehicles onto the roads of the North East. The trial started in November 2010 and extends until May 2013. In that time members of the general public are invited to use the vehicles for 6 months as they would their conventional petrol or diesel powered cars. The trial is somewhat unique nationally in that it is operating in conjunction with the Charge Your Car ‘Plugged in Places’ project This is installing publically accessible charging infrastructure for EV drivers throughout the region. Drivers of the Switch EV vehicles will now have real options about when and where they charge up. Their homes can be equipped with the latest domestic charging units, they can also have access to the on street charging posts or take advantage of the fast chargers being installed around the region. These enable the cars to be 80% charged in about 20 minutes. This infrastructure environment enables the research team at Newcastle University to confirm the performance and suitability of the vehicles and infrastructure, and understand the perceptions of the drivers over their 6 months experience of the vehicles. The Switch EV research team have equipped all the vehicles with loggers that track the vehicles and how they are driven 24 hours a day. They also track where the cars are charged and how much energy they are consuming. The team will also be meeting with the drivers to understand their experiences with the cars and judge their suitability and the potential barriers to their mass adoption. The findings from the trial will be shared with the TSB to help them build the national picture and will also be used by the consortium partners to confirm & improve their EV offering.

The High Torque eV Motor project (HiTEV) will deliver a high torque EV electrical machine and drive system. The current State-of-the-art Nissan Leaf machine is the benchmark by which the project deliverables will be judged, both technically and commercially. The advances made in this project will align with the European driving scene, including higher vehicle speed and longer typical driving range per journey. Additionally, this leads to the overall reduction in vehicle CO2 emissions and increased reliability and the initial objective is to achieve twice the output torque thus requiring only half the speed range that the standard Leaf machine achieves. Consortium partners, Nissan UK and The University of Sheffield, who have a good previous track record in joint EV machine research will develop novel high torque density drive system. Nissan at its R&D facility in Cranfield aims to convert its engine test facilities into state of the art EV machine drive-train test cell in order to validate the prototype machines and will facilitate the up-skilling of UK engineers based at Nissan, together with the supply chain for the manufacture of vehicles within the UK. The University of Sheffield has significant expertise in the development of novel machine and drive topologies for EV use and aims to provide a step change in technology currently employed within the EV community. Nissan, which currently produces the Leaf at its Sunderland manufacturing facility, will provide a direct route to market and facilitate the exploitation of the UK commercial supplier based for EV drivetrain components.

The High Energy Density Battery (HEDB) project will bring academic and industrial research together to deliver productivity improvements at Nissan's battery manufacturing plant in Sunderland. NMUK already operates one of the most productive car plants in Europe, and has brought hundreds of millions of pounds of inward investment to the UK, including the opening of the Nissan LEAF battery manufacturing plant in Sunderland in March 2013. This project aims to deliver technical and productivity improvements which will enhance both the cost and range of Nissan Electric Vehicles - resulting in reduced EU CO2 emissions, increased employment in the UK, and increased exports (of batteries and vehicles to Europe). Alongside this, the project will create an automated manufacturing facility at UK SME Hyperdrive which will use Nissan battery cells to create battery packs for non-competing applications such as bus, truck, and industrial applications. This new supply chain will create jobs and economic value, and will make viable the electrification of vehicles in sectors where this is currently not economically feasible. This will result in improved air quality and CO2 emissions.

"The ultimate aim of ServCity is to reduce private car journeys in urban areas by providing a reliable autonomous mobility service. By doing so, the consortium aims to solve urban challenges around congestion and emissions and, propose a blueprint for future Automated Mobility Services (AMS). This project demonstrates UK capabilities and technologies to a global audience by bringing together two globally recognised British business champions and builds on UK's academic and Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) expertise to deliver a novel, economically sustainable business model for London - the UK megacity. The service will be developed with an ultimate aim of offering fully automated vehicles (SAE Level 5) as part of flexible urban mobility. However, this project will explore the concepts through pilot testing SAE Level 4 vehicles aided by simulation and modelling."

The project will develop and launch innovative products and casting technology for vehicle components. Applied technology will centre on the development of lighter and stronger cylinder heads resulting in better fuel consumption, reduced emissions, and improved power to weight ratios. The products will be used both in the UK and exported globally. A key part of the project will be the expertise provided by each consortium member: Brunel University's research and expertise in melt conditioning and liquid metal engineering; HAUK will provide advanced core-making technology including inorganic 3D core printing technology; Lighthouse systems will develop a new mobile application (HTML5) to access their data integration and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) for OEE and quality management; Beta Technology Limited will support industrialisation and commercialisation assessments. The proposal will create 23 jobs, and safeguard a further 153.