The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) today hosted the world premiere of a new, range-extended electric commercial vehicle, which combines new technologies from around the UK in a project co-funded by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB).
The ‘Lightweight Ultra Low Emissions Delivery Van’ project was a collaborative project conducted by Revolve and Intelligent Energy (IE LEV) with financial assistance from TSB as part of its Low Carbon Vehicles Innovation Platform.
The scope of the project was to develop and prove a concept for a low carbon delivery van that would meet the requirements for fleet use. Two fully functioning demonstrator vehicles were built using a diesel range-extender powertrain, showcasing not only the UK’s engineering skills, but also its low carbon component supply base.
One of the key objectives of the project was to bring together UK suppliers active in low carbon technologies, improving their capability and knowledge to develop a ‘Route to Production’ for the commercialisation of the vehicle. To this end, IE-LEV has established a subsidiary company, Emerald Automotive, to complete the engineering integration and to manufacture the vehicles.
The demonstrator vehicles were built by Revolve with the aluminium understructure developed and supplied by Multimatic. The lightweight composite body panels were sourced from ACG, the battery packs from Axeon and the traction motors and generators from EVO. The Vehicle Control Units (VCUs) were developed by Ricardo.
The CO2 emissions achieved by the demonstrator vehicles were 31.4g/km over the UNECE101 cycle with a fuel consumption of 232mpg. With further development, the project partners predict figures of 25g/km and 300mpg.
Click through the slideshow below to see all the photos from SMMT’s exhibition space.
