Jaguar Land Rover is to lead a £16.3-m ‘Evoque_e’ collaborative research project to develop new hybrid and battery electric vehicle (BEV) technology.
The research and development programme is for latest, next-generation hybrid and battery electric powertrain technology based on the Range Rover Evoque platform.
Evoque_e is supported by the UK’s innovation agency the Technology Strategy Board to encourage collaboration between industry, suppliers and leading universities in the UK.
Jaguar Land Rover will contribute £4m to the project and will lead a consortium of 12 selected partners — eight from industry and three universities.
Low Carbon Vehicle Event
Jaguar Land Rover will showcase a number of other collaborative research projects at the Low Carbon Vehicle Event 2013, the UK’s leading event for automotive environmental technology
The partners include Zytek Automotive, GKN Driveline, Motor Design Limited, AVL, Drive System Design, Williams Advanced Engineering, Delta Motorsport, Tata Steel, Bristol University, Cranfield University and Newcastle University.
Collaborative research project
Starting in October 2013, the collaboration will design, develop and build three research vehicles showcasing latest next-generation powertrain concepts for a mild hybrid electric vehicle (MHEV); a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) and a full battery electric vehicle (BEV).
Peter Richings, Director, Hybrids and Electrification, JLR, said: “The aim of the project is to develop technology platforms which are configurable and compatible within the architecture of an existing production vehicle. The modular technologies include single and multi-speed axle drives; modular battery packs and integrated power electronics, multi-machine, advanced control development and torque vectoring.”