University wins £5m and key role in Government’s Driving the Electric Revolution programme

WMG and the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick have been awarded just over £5m funding and a key coordinating role in the Government’s Driving the Electric Revolution Industrialisation Centre programme.

Driving the Electric Revolution is a UK Research and Innovation funded Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund  technology programme to help achieve the UK’s net zero ambitions working across cars, aircraft, rail, marine, renewables, industrial digital technology, industrial power electronics, and machines and drives.

It is investing £28.5m into cutting edge equipment across the country.

WMG and the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick have been awarded the following equipment funding:
•        Almost £4m from UKRI and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult for a new Winding Centre of Excellence led by Dr David Simkin in WMG at the University of Warwick. The facility will help UK supply chain companies to manufacture discrete hairpin machines.
•        An award in order of £1.3m from UKRI and High Value Manufacturing Catapult for the University of Warwick’s School of Engineering for a facility led by Professor  Phil Mawby and focusing on power electronics reliability and failure analysis.

WMG at the University of Warwick has also been selected to provide leadership to the Midlands Driving the Electric Revolution Centre, which is one of four across the UK.

These centres will coordinate and build on the UK’s national capability to deliver long-term sustainable growth on the road to net zero.

Together they will help businesses scale up the use of electric-powered vehicles and machines across a range of industries and transport systems to grow the UK supply chain.

Margot James, executive chair at WMG, University of Warwick, said: “We are delighted that Warwick is leading such an important project in the UK’s effort to build a net zero future. The green agenda will contribute significantly to our economic recovery and growth, with zero carbon transport crucial to protecting our planet. It’s encouraging to see an opportunity for UK businesses to work together, through the centres, to deliver on the sustainable transport challenge.”

Professor Will Drury, Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge director, said: “This investment represents a vital step forward in making the UK a world leader in Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD). With access to the centres and network open to all, we aim to give all UK businesses and researchers the ability to develop and scale new PEMD technologies and manufacturing processes. Only by investing now in developing PEMD will the UK achieve its net zero ambitions.”

Dr. Andreas Docter, director Electric Powertrain, Jaguar Land Rover, said: “This is a great opportunity to support the most advanced projects in the development and testing of Power Electronics, Machines & Drive (PEMD) systems. Jaguar Land Rover has a specific interest in projects which improve manufacturing processes, accelerate the PEMD manufacturing innovation to production and an important one is flexible eDrive prototyping. These all contribute to the company’s mission of achieving Destination Zero.”

David Bock MIET, @FutureBEV Technical Lead BMW AG said: “@FutureBEV is pleased to be working with University of Warwick as a strong partner in the development of next generation powertrain development and core component development within the APC15 @FutureBEV programme. University of Warwick’s place in the Government’s Driving the Electric Revolution programme will provide value in the @FutureBEV reinforcing the knowledge transfer to real products that will influence the concept to product delivery within the program and in steering the next generations of engineers into the industry.

“The UK supply chain needs this capability, and this provides a strong path to delivering best in class power electronics to market as well as the needed skill base for future delivery into the value chain.”

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