The Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) highlights advancements in clean-propulsion technologies and details updates to its automotive technology roadmaps, which guide the transition to zero-emission vehicles.
Over the past decade, we have seen clean-propulsion technologies advance rapidly, driven by a combination of innovation and pending policy and legislation. With so much happening here in the UK and around the world, it can be difficult to see the bigger picture and truly understand where we are collectively as an industry.
For over a decade, the APC, on behalf of the Automotive Council UK, has been developing and updating a series of automotive technology roadmaps aligned with the strategic technologies for the automotive sector, to identify key trends and drivers and assess the state-of-play and look forward to what could potentially lie ahead for the industry.
The concept of low-carbon vehicles was still gaining traction then. It wasn’t until the Paris Agreement, signed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21 in 2015 that it became more widely known and has since evolved to a wider net zero discussion.
However, within the automotive industry, it was clear that a move away from fossil-fuel-powered internal combustion engines (ICE) would need to become mainstream to satisfy forthcoming requirements in the drive to reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change.
Since these first roadmaps, the APC has continued to play an integral role in subsequent updates, and in September of this year, we were proud to launch the next iteration – the 2024 refresh of the Automotive Council’s roadmaps.
These roadmaps are particularly important to the sector because they are developed through an industry consensus process, ensuring they reflect the collective expertise, priorities, and long-term vision of key stakeholders across the automotive ecosystem. This collaborative approach fosters alignment and drives innovation across the entire industry.
The evolution of our roadmaps
Over the past 18 months, APC has hosted in-person and online workshops and conducted surveys and webinars with over 430 participants across 230 global organisations covering industry, academia, and government representation. The roadmaps offer a comprehensive knowledge base, a one-stop shop if you like, enabling access to a considerable amount of information compiled from input provided by a wide range of relevant stakeholders, who are all specialists and experts in their field. This is what makes these documents such a valuable resource.
It is interesting to note how the roadmaps have evolved. This year, we have introduced two brand-new roadmaps focused on the ‘Mobility of Goods’ and the ‘Mobility of People,’ anticipating changing trends in mass transportation and logistics, which will significantly impact the industry landscape. Such transition enables a holistic approach to innovation in both on-vehicle and adjacent sectors and drivers such as energy infrastructure, end-users, societal integration, and, of course, sustainability goals.
We have had great interest and support from across the automotive supply chain and the broader industrial ecosystem to this approach, highlighting opportunities across the broader transport sector.
Mike Hawes, CEO of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said in the foreword of the two new systems-level roadmaps that these changes “demand new system-level roadmaps; focussed not just on automotive products and technologies but their role in the broader transport ecosystem – the mobility of both people and goods.
Different vehicle applications will require different solutions. There will be a range of complementary private and public transport solutions – some individual, some shared, some requiring high-power solutions, and some much less. And this diversity of technologies will apply equally to the mobility of goods.”
In addition to the mobility roadmaps, we updated six underpinning technology roadmaps: Electrical Energy Storage, Electric Machines, Power Electronics, Lightweighting, ICE, Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Systems and Storage.
Four key themes
Across all the roadmaps, we address some key themes, including the importance of strengthening the end-to-end sustainability of automotive products and services, building resilience in the automotive supply chain across strategic technology value chains, affordability for the end-users, and enhancing the net-zero value proposition.
For clarity, we have analysed a series of cross-cutting themes for all roadmaps covering policy and regulations, energy and infrastructure, materials and manufacturing, and digitalisation. These four key themes are designed to help drive collaboration across industry, academia, and government.
The UK is globally recognised for its world-class research and academic excellence. This reputation will play a paramount role as we look to bring innovation to life, strengthening partnerships between academia and industry to apply research to real-world solutions. Certainly, collaboration is a crucial link in the chain to the success of the UK’s automotive industry over the coming years as automakers and their supply chain work closely together to establish a truly sustainable lifecycle for parts and components.
Collaboration is key, not only between automakers and supply chains but also the government, to ensure we have a policy that reflects our ambitions in terms of both sustainability and trade policies to strengthen the UK’s automotive industry and its supporting sectors.
Digitalisation
Digitalisation will be a key enabler for sustainability; it is a constant theme across all of the roadmaps and touches all aspects of technology. From generating ‘digital twins’ to enabling rapid prototyping and validation to introduce manufacturing efficiencies and process improvements, it is becoming integral to the way we operate.
Already we are seeing digitalisation emerge to support materials discovery processes, with artificial intelligence and machine learning speeding this process up, as well as supporting the reduction of waste material, the creation of digital passports, the advancement of simulation techniques and ongoing assessment and monitoring of systems and components once they are on-vehicle.
At the roadmap launch event, Chair of the Automotive Council Strategy Group., Neville Jackson told those present that “Digitalisation provides the capability to optimise the whole system without the need for a range of expensive prototypes. The UK, in general, is good at AI and digitalisation. Adapting some of what we do so well in the Fintech sector to engineering would deliver significant productivity benefits.”
Driving sustainability
Sustainability, product lifecycle, circularity, and traceability of origin are other common themes that run through the roadmaps. Since the ‘diesel-gate’ scandal nearly 10 years ago, the spotlight has been on the automotive industry, with innovation focussing on the decarbonisation of all vehicles across the transport sector marked as a priority alongside the introduction of a supporting regulatory framework.
Within the roadmaps, we look at all modes of automotive transport, from passenger cars and heavy goods vehicles to off-highway and non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) applications. Product lifecycle management for all these applications has moved up the prioritisation agenda on a global scale.
Regulation is now driving sustainability measures, and the focus will be on creating circular economies and a comprehensive model of sustainable automotive manufacturing right here in the UK that sets the bar worldwide. At the launch of the roadmap, there was much discussion on one of the panels we hosted as to what is required and what next steps are needed.
Carol Burke, Managing Director at Unipart Manufacturing Group, spoke of the importance of suppliers having a clear strategy for the road to decarbonisation, with a view of the UK’s strengths and threats. She said: “I would encourage original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to think about the capability we have in the UK and to sit down with suppliers to come up with the solutions needed. Sustainability presents a cost issue, but it also presents opportunities.”
A busy time ahead
With so much to address, the automotive industry and its supporting sectors are going to be busy over the coming years. The roadmaps offer a much-needed focus for activity, and we view them very much as working documents or reference points. Things will change, and not everything will happen the way we have set out here.
We have seen over recent years how global events have a way of unsettling the best-laid plans, and with geopolitical tensions continuing in a number of regions, we need to do what we can to ensure the UK’s automotive industry and its supply chains are resilient, productive, sustainable, and efficient.
A statement made at the roadmap launch event by Jo Bray, Director of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), is a fitting conclusion. She said: “The automotive industry is a pillar of the UK economy, supporting jobs and research and development (R&D). It is part of the UK’s transition to net zero, a huge employer supporting high-quality jobs. At a time of such fierce global competition, the companies and governments that can anticipate the future, plan for it, and invest in it will succeed. We want the UK to succeed and the benefits to be shared by all.”
Find out more: the technology and system-level roadmaps, along with their supporting narrative reports, can be accessed via the APC’s online Knowledge Base hub at: Our Roadmaps – Advanced Propulsion Centre. If you would like to contribute to our future roadmap reviews, email us now at [email protected]
The Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) collaborates with the UK government, the automotive industry and academia to accelerate the industrialisation of technologies that support the transition to zero-emission vehicles and towards a net-zero automotive supply chain in the UK.
Established in 2013, the APC, with the backing of the UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT), has facilitated funding for 304 low-carbon and zero-emission projects involving 538 partners. Working with companies of all sizes, this funding is estimated to have helped create or safeguard over 59,000 jobs in the UK. The technologies and products that result from these projects are projected to save over 425 million tonnes of CO2.
With deep sector expertise and cutting-edge knowledge of new propulsion technologies, the APC’s role in building and advising project consortia helps projects start more quickly and deliver increased value, accelerating new technologies to market. The APC works to drive innovation and encourage collaboration, building the foundations for a successful and sustainable UK automotive industry.
In 2020, the UK Government established the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) to accelerate the development of a net-zero vehicle supply chain, enabling UK-based manufacturers to serve global markets. ATF investments are accessed through the APC and awarded by DBT to support strategically important UK capital and R&D investments that will enable companies involved in batteries, motors and drives, power electronics, fuel cells, and associated supply chains to anchor their future.
For more information, go to apcuk.co.uk or follow us @theapcuk on X and Advanced Propulsion Centre UK on LinkedIn.
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Please note, this article will also appear in the 20th edition of our quarterly publication.