The new head of a £50 million facility for creating cleaner mobility is targeting participationin over £20 million of collaborative industrial research projects this year, as the race for electrification gathers pace.

Simon Shepherd, a powertrain systems expert, has been appointed as the director for the Centre for Advanced Low-Carbon Propulsion Systems (C-ALPS), a Coventry University research initiative (www.coventry.ac.uk).

One of his first tasks will be to identify key industrial partners and match their needs to the centre’s core priority research areas and capabilities, incubating project ideas that can attract ground transport and aerospace funding from bodies such as Innovate UK.

There will be a specific focus on developing and commercialising technologies and manufacturing processes around battery energy storage and hydrogen fuel cells, power electronics, and electrical machines.

Coventry University and founding partner FEV have already invested over £15 million in the C-ALPS facility, installing an electronics laboratory, a battery cell prototype line and a ‘battery cycling’ laboratory alongside FEV’s own ‘state of the art’ engine test cells.

They will now look to attract next-generation technology projects that help OEMs and the supply chain to meet the growing demand for real-world CO₂ reduction through cleaner mobility.

Mr Shepherd said: “The race to decarbonised transport is one of the biggest challenges facing the automotive sector right now, as all of the big players try to find increasingly high-tech ways to meet stringent emission targets, while ensuring that their organisations remain profitable.

“At the heart of this is how we power the vehicles of the future and how we can move faster towards the mass adoption of hybridised and fully electric transport that works both environmentally and commercially.”