Strathclyde is to play a key role as the city of Glasgow becomes a leader in driving environmental change, through the development of electric vehicles.
The University is involved in two of the eight new low carbon vehicle projects which are set to benefit from a share of £25 million of Government funding to run ‘real life’ trials, announced by Science and Innovation Minister Lord Drayson and Secretary of State for Transport Lord Adonis.
More than £1.8million of funding has been awarded by the Technology Strategy Board to a consortium led by Glasgow niche vehicle manufacturer Allied Vehicles and including Strathclyde. The project will support the development and trial of electric cars in the city over the next two years- data on the vehicles' performance, including cost per mile and energy per mile, will be monitored at Strathclyde, through a bespoke data-logger installed in the cars.
Strathclyde is also part of the Ford Focus Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) consortium, which will be developing zero-emission prototype vehicles to test the technology's suitability for potential future application in Ford's European passenger car range.
Dr Andrew Cruden, a senior lecturer in Strathclyde's Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, is leading the University's teams in the two consortia. He said: "The development of renewable energy is essential to tackling climate change and it is particularly vital in the quest for sustainable, energy-efficient transport.
"At Strathclyde, we have vast resources of knowledge and expertise in these areas to draw upon. Along with our partners in these innovative and ambitious programmes, we look forward to creating practical and positive solutions to one of the most pressing challenges which the world faces today."
The Allied Vehicles Project aims to accelerate technological development, help encourage the take up of alternative fuel vehicles and to identify and resolve issues that may arise in the production and use of this type of vehicle in a daily-use environment.
The intention is for the project to design, test and bring to production 40 battery electric cars by October 2009, via partners Allied Vehicles, Strathclyde, Glasgow City Council, ScottishPower and Axeon. The vehicles will have zero tailpipe emissions of CO2 or any other noxious gases. They will have a range of 80 to 100 miles on a full recharge and will be capable of recharging from domestic or commercial power supply. The performance of the vehicles will be tested to UN regulations.
Forty charging points will be located around Glasgow. During the one-year test period the vehicles will be monitored using an innovative GPS system to record the number and length of individual journeys, the date and time and the energy usage of each journey, the time and length of charging and the ambient temperature. This data will be gathered via the internet for analysis by experts at Strathclyde.
The project will produce a range of passenger battery electric vehicles based on the Peugeot car range and Peugeot Expert Teepees. Converted by Allied Vehicles,a proportion of the vehicles will be equipped to transport wheelchair passengers, widening the range of potential users as far as possible.
The project will significantly extend knowledge of the ways in which electric vehicles are driven, including information on charging frequencies and locations, distances driven and driving styles. This will provide hugely useful information to utilities and vehicle and battery manufacturers, enabling future improvement of electric vehicle batteries, by optimising their performance to meet empirically-demonstrated needs.
The Ford Focus BEV consortium will use Ford demonstration prototypes as part of the UK Government's Ultra-Low Carbon Vehicle fleet.
A consortium of Ford, Strathclyde and Scottish and Southern Energy will provide the prototype vehicles and a charging infrastructure in and around Hillingdon, Middlesex, during 2010. Ford of Europe is specially developing the prototype Focus BEVs to participate in the scheme and test the technology's suitability for potential future application in Ford's European passenger car range.