Technology Group

The Technology Group was established to analyse evidence and provide advice to the Council on UK automotive R&D investment opportunities with the aim of fostering the development of a stronger UK engineering, supply and manufacturing base. Central to this aim has been the Group’s preparation and ownership of the UK Automotive Technology Strategy. This involves the development of long-term technology roadmaps, an understanding of the research challenges required to deliver them, and the identification of ‘sticky’ technologies against these challenges where the UK can develop competitive advantage.

The roadmaps represent a shared vision of manufacturers and suppliers in the UK and provide a powerful consensus both to facilitate collaboration and to help inform policy-making in the area of technology support. For example, the work looking at how new innovations for reducing CO2 will come to market has led to the development of the battery scale-up facility at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult at Warwick Manufacturing Group – and more recently, the 10-year £1 billion Advanced Propulsion Centre, looking to secure the UK as the leading centre to research, develop and commercialise the next generation of low carbon technologies.

Presently the Technology Group has workstreams operating on priority R&D areas as follows:

Future Technology
To conduct analysis of the future technology needs for the sector to improve coordination and collaboration with the academic research community, establish an advisory group to help align research funding with industry challenges where relevant.

Technology R&D
To consider opportunities from EU research and development funding and how to improve collaboration to better access it.

Manufacturing Technology
To identify the future high value manufacturing technologies that are required to deliver the technology roadmaps published here.

Intelligent Mobility
With Intelligent Mobility cutting across and going beyond the traditional transport sector this workstream is developing a strategy for the UK which utilises the emerging technological markets to enable user-focused, integrated, efficient and sustainable transport systems.

Energy storage and energy management
To create a non-electrochemical energy storage road map describing energy devices, the means of transferring energy and the potential impact on overall vehicle architecture.

Design
The Design workstream was established in January 2014 with the objective of maintaining and building UK strength in the discipline.