Spread over 20 projects, including hydrogen and lithium projects.
Together with automotive industry members, the UK Government has awarded 20 electric vehicle (EV) technology projects with a total sum of $100 million in funding. Areas covered include new battery technologies, hydrogen-powered vehicles, and critical mineral projects. Minerals covered encompass lithium and graphite projects to supply a future EV battery supply chain in the UK.
The funding has been awarded through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC), aiming to build an end-to-end value chain for zero-emission vehicles in the UK.
The financed ventures also extend into the luxury car segment. Here, Aston Martin has been awarded around $12 million in funding. The carmaker aims to reduce weight to eventually combine racing properties with electrification ambitions.
The funding announcement comes ahead of next month’s Autumn Statement of Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, in which he is due to unveil a fiscal package and a possible top-up to Britain’s Automotive Transformation Fund. Bloomberg reports that the fund could be increased by hundreds of millions of dollars to bolster the domestic EV industry. Especially the green investment policies implemented by the U.S. Government under President Biden and Beijing’s subsidies for Chinese EVs have stirred fears of becoming uncompetitive among European automotive industry members.
Photo: iStock/vice_and_virtue
