The off-road vehicles of the future may consume less than half the energy used today, thanks to a multi-million-pound project being led by Edinburgh technology firm Artemis Intelligent Power (www.artemisip.com).

This will use £11 million secured from the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK to help develop a new generation of ‘digital displacement’ hydraulic pumps and motors to be used in off-road vehicles such as excavators and wheel loaders, plus material-handling equipment.

Artemis will collaborate with Danfoss — one of the world’s largest suppliers of hydraulic equipment to the off-road market — and Scottish firm Robbie Fluid Engineering.

The 42-month project is expected to bring skilled jobs and new investment in its wake.

The consortium believes that the new technology it is developing will radically improve the performance of off-road vehicles and reduce their fuel consumption.

Niall Caldwell, Artemis Intelligent Power’s managing director, said: “This UK funding will enable our world-class engineering team to develop digital displacement technology as a major component in the $3.5 billion off-road vehicle hydraulic-machinery market.

“Off-road vehicles today use hydraulics for propulsion and working functions, such as digging and lifting, but most of the energy used by the engine is wasted as heat inside the system.

“We realised that the most cost-effective way to reduce the fuel consumption and emissions of these machines is to eliminate this waste, by improving the efficiency of the hydraulic system.

"With digital displacement, we are leading hydraulic power into the digital age by embedding digital control into the very heart of the machine. Now hydraulics can compete with electrical drives on efficiency and control, offering a new roadmap towards the low-carbon future for this industry.

“Ultimately, the digital-displacement off-road vehicles of the future will have smaller engines, be cheaper to run and use less than half the energy of today’s vehicles — whether that energy comes from fossil fuel, hydrogen, biogas or batteries.”