BMW secures funding for EV battery to compete with traditional engine

A BMW project focused on developing a long-distance electric vehicle battery has received £ 26.2million ($ 36.07million) in joint funding from industry and the UK government.

The Oxford-based project, called BMW-UK-BEV, is one of four to receive funding through the Advanced Propulsion Center Collaborative Research and Development competition.

According to the APC, the BMW project focuses on an EV battery “to compete with the range of internal combustion engines”. According to the APC, it would seek to “develop the largest battery pack of BMW Group to offer superior performance at competitive costs”.

With the UK planning to stop selling new diesel and gasoline cars and vans by 2030, the deployment of technologies capable of increasing electric vehicle distances will be crucial.

Among other things, this will help challenge perceptions surrounding ‘range anxiety’, or the idea that electric vehicles are not able to take long trips without running out of charge and ending up. blocked.

Apart from BMW, the other successful projects to receive funding – a total of £ 91.7million has been provided – are Brunel, who is studying hydrogen internal combustion engines; Celeritas, which concerns the development of ultra-fast charging batteries; and Reecorner, which is linked to the overhaul of what the government has called “light and medium utility electric vehicles.”

Ian Constance, who is APC’s chief executive, said in a statement that the projects tackle “some really big challenges on the road to net zero road transport.”

“They address the anxiety and cost of range that can be barriers for people switching to electric vehicles and they also provide potential solutions to the challenge of decarbonizing public transport and the movement of goods.”

BMW is one of many companies working on new battery concepts and ideas. Toyota and Panasonic, for example, have created a joint venture called Prime Planet Energy & Solutions.

The company, which began operations last April, describes itself as specializing in the development and manufacture of “advanced batteries that can be used over and over again anytime, anywhere.”

More recently, in June 2021, Renault announced that it had signed “two major partnerships” related to the design and production of batteries for electric vehicles.

A few months earlier, in March, Volkswagen had announced its intention to establish several “gigafactories” in Europe by the end of the decade.