Jaguar Land Rover invests in powertrain research project

Jaguar Land Rover will coordinate a new government research project, called 'Evoque_e', which aims to develop advanced battery and hybrid technologies.

A sum total of £16.3 million (around Rs 157 crore) - £4m (around Rs 38 crore) of which was contributed by JLR - has been set aside for the Evoque_e project, which will start in October. Three research vehicles will be designed, developed and built, showcasing the next generation of powertrain concepts for all-electric, plug-in hybrid and 'mild' electric-hybrid cars.Peter Richings, Jaguar Land Rover director of hybrids and electrification, 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.”

The project, which is supported by the UK's Technology Strategy Board, will see JLR lead a consortium of partners including eight companies and three universities.Businesses involved include Zytek Automotive, GKN Driveline, Williams Advanced Engineering and Tata Steel, while the participating universities are Bristol, Cranfield and Newcastle."Research teams will look at how the speed of the electric motor can be increased, to reduce its size, weight and cost while enhancing performance and durability. We will also look at the use of alternative materials to both reduce the use of rare earth materials and for systems optimisation", said Richings."The outcome of the Evoque_e project will be new technologies with the potential for high volume production that are capable of delivering benchmark performance in terms of cost, weight and sustainable use of materials." 

JLR has also announced that it will lead a £10m (around Rs 96 crore) joint virtual engineering research project.