Zenzic is incentivising entries for CAM Scale-Up UK 2024/25 with the promise of up to £100,000 in government funding for each successful applicant.
Backed by the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), the prestigious programme has already supported 22 UK self-driving start-ups and SMEs since 2020.
Mark Cracknell, Programme Director at Zenzic, said: “To ensure we remain at the front of the global race to develop the autonomous and connected transport solutions of tomorrow, it is vital that we continue to support the bright minds and innovative SMEs who play a key role in developing and deploying such solutions, which is why we’d encourage any business from an automotive or tech background with an idea of how they could help drive the sector forward to get in touch and find out more.”
CAM Scale-Up Winner
Lisa Layzell, CEO of self-driving pothole filling robot provider Robotiz3d – one of the winning Cohort 4 companies – is full of praise for the programme, saying: “Being part of CAM Scale-Up UK connected us to major players in the CAM industry and opened doors for us coming into 2024. It also helped us access world-leading testing facilities where we could test in as near to a real-world environment as possible.”
On track at CAM Testbed UK, 2022
The ‘Expressions of Interest’ window opened yesterday (12 February 2024), with the Cohort 5 winners due to be announced in August.
As regular Cars of the Future readers know, we occasionally like to look back into the world before self-driving in a series we call… Cars of the Past.
Before Christmas we were delighted to be invited to the newly revamped Hornby Visitor Centre, here in our home town of Margate.
As shown on TV’s Hornby: A Model World, ‘The Wonderworks’ features a host of miniature automotive legends, including Beatles buses, Bond cars, and an Airfix model of my Dad’s favourite Bentley.
Beatles, Bond and Bentley Cars at Hornby Visitor Centre
There was a Margate-themed Scalextric racetrack too, and, considering the lack of match practice, yours truly was quite pleased with a sub-10-second lap!
As to the full-sized treats, they had Daniel Craig’s Scrambler from No Time To Die, and, for one day only, the original Triumph TR6 motorbike ridden by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. It doesn’t get cooler than that!
Steve McQueen’s bike from The Great Escape
McQueen himself was keen to emphasise that the famous barbed wire fence jump was performed not by him but by his friend and stunt double, Bud Ekins.
No self-driving cars?
What’s all this got to do with self-driving you might ask? Well, our sector is somewhat underrepresented in the model world.
There was this Matchbox bus we covered a couple of years ago, but not a lot else. It’d be nice to change that wouldn’t it?
UBIPOS Co-Founder, George Ye, on life-saving Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) for self-driving.
You all know about CAVForth – Vehicle of the Year winner at the inaugural Self-driving Industry Awards – well, it turns out that’s not the only world-beating Forth Road Bridge tech project.
In 2019, the GNSS and Earth Observation for Structural Health Monitoring (GeoSHM) demonstration project, led by UBIPOS UK, won The Engineer’s Collaborate to Innovate (C2I) award for Information, Data & Connectivity for a long-term commercial project designed to consign major bridge disasters to history. A pretty epic goal, we’re sure you’ll agree!
GeoSHM uses multiple space technologies and insitu sensors to provide a real-time picture of bridge movements and stresses. At its core are GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receivers that pick up positional data via the GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, GLONASS, IRNSS and QZSS global and regional satellite constellations. This monitoring is complemented by interferometric synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR) data provided by Earth Observation (EO) satellites that can track potential subsidence.
George Ye
The GeoSHM project was supported by The University of Nottingham, BRDI, Leica Geosystems, GVL and Transport Scotland – and the technology is now being brought to market by UBIPOS, along with more self-driving-specific services, as Co-Founder and Managing Director, George Ye, explains…
UBIPOS Co-Founder and MD, George Ye, on PNT for self-driving
GY: “The GeoSHM project on the Forth Road Bridge has run in various incarnations for over a decade now, and we’ve conducted extensive tests on the Humber Bridge and Yangtze River Bridge in China too. We’re confident the tech is proven, so we are moving to commercialise it domestically and globally as the GeoSHM Pro Structural Health Monitoring System, a high-precision solution to optimise maintenance. It has the potential to save many, many lives.
“UBIPOS was formed in 2010 to solve the most challenging and complex sustainable smart city, intelligent mobility and precision agriculture issues. We are now recognised as a world-leading geospatial science company. We have offices in Central London and Milton Keynes, and a subsidiary in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Into self-driving
“We followed the CAVForth project with great interest because we are very into self-driving ourselves. We were closely involved in the European Space Agency’s recent CoDRIVE demonstration project, which aimed to build an intelligent mobility service platform for connected and automated vehicles to advance the transition towards shared mobility. Out of that, we are building towards establishing the ESA CONTACT demonstration project as a game-changing on-board Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) platform, offering cm- and eventually mm-level real-time positioning data for the manufacturers of traditional, hybrid and electric vehicles, as well as intelligent fleet mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) operators.
“To commercialise this ground-breaking product, we are partnering with a number of leading UK organisations and companies your readers will be familiar with – Imperial College London, Cambridge University spin-out RoboK.ai, National Highways contractor Kier Highways, globally leading engineering services specialist WSP UK, and the West Midlands Combined Authority. We have been sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and our priority is to get the costs down to enable this unit to be fitted into millions of new cars per year.”
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas was always big on self-driving, until last year, when Cleantechnica ran the headline: “CES 2023 Shies Away From Autonomous Driving Technology”. So, did self-driving bounce back to steal the show at CES 2024?
Well, not really. Remote driving made headlines, with Sony and Honda showing off their Afeela EV concept by driving it onto the CES stage using a PlayStation DualSense controller.
However, despite boasting 600+ mobility exhibitors at “one of the world’s largest and fastest growing global auto, mobility and transportation events”, there were precious few self-driving stories.
Techcrunch’s summary of stand-out products covered electrification, drones, AI, chatbots, in-cabin features and hydrogen. Automotive News majored on clean fuel, particularly Bosch Mobility’s new hydrogen combustion engine and Hyundai’s “full-scale hydrogen ambitions”.
Samsung CEO JH Han talks AI at CES 2024 (Credit: Consumer Technology Association)
Self-driving presence
That’s not to say there wasn’t a self-driving presence. PIX Moving promoted its partnership with Japan’s TIER IV, offering “white-label EV models” to “further boost the autonomous mobility ecosystem”, including the PIX Robobus…
The self-driving PIX Robobus was on show at CES 2024
Writing in Forbes, Brad Templeton (formerly of Google’s car team) highlighted a significant announcement from Amazon’s Zoox – they will start providing robotaxi rides in Las Vegas this year.
“While Zoox has been at this for a decade, what’s big is to see them finally entering a real pilot deployment at a time where the industry has lost players like Cruise (at least temporarily) and Argo, and little news has come from Motional, leaving Waymo almost alone in the west,” he said.
Important, but not as glitzy as the “crab drive” capabilities of the Hyundai Mobis concept, as interpreted by hip hop dance influencer Kirsten Dodgen…
Or the MBUX Sound Drive entertainment features from Mercedes-Benz and rapper Will.i.am…
Will.i.am at CES 2024 (Credit: Consumer Technology Association)
Must try harder next year self-driving, or partner with a pop star.
Self-driving features in two flagship BBC programmes – Today and The Royal Institution Christmas Lecture
Throughout the five-year history of Cars of the Future, our Hyperbolic Headlines strand has highlighted the most egregious examples of negative self-driving media coverage.
Sometimes it is so biased or plain misinformed as to be quite amusing, but actually it is deadly serious, hugely damaging to consumer confidence.
Hats off, then, to the BBC for delivering not only some of the best consumer reporting we’ve seen to date, but also putting self-driving front and centre of its Christmas programming.
Christmas Lecture on self-driving
For starters, we highly recommend the 2023 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (here on Youtube if you’re outside the UK). Primarily aimed at 11-17 year olds, they are typically enjoyed by families [ok, I was forced to watch them by my dad and now happily do the same to my children!].
First televised on the BBC in 1936, the Christmas Lectures were conceived by Michael Faraday as an exciting new way of presenting science to young people. They have been held almost every year since 1825.
Professor Mike Wooldridge (Credit: Royal Institution)
This year, Mike Wooldridge, Professor of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the University of Oxford, explored “The dream of driverless cars” with help from our very own Industry Legend, Professor Paul Newman CBE, of Oxa.
This included analysing a real-life incident which occurred while Mike was travelling in Oxa’s test car in Oxford (with a safety driver). A human-driven car drove way too close to them on a roundabout, but the self-driving vehicle handled it smoothly and safely. Cue huge applause from the live teen audience in the theatre.
In any other month we’d have dedicated an entire article to this great show, but the Beeb had another treat in store.
Today on self-driving
On the days in between Christmas and New Year, James May (yes, he of The Grand Tour and formerly Top Gear) assumed guest editorship of the flagship Today news and current affairs programme.
This prestigious role has been filled in the past by Prince Harry, Greta Thunberg, Benjamin Zephaniah, Melinda Gates, Jarvis Cocker, Lewis Hamilton and Professor Stephen Hawking.
One of the three main subjects May chose to investigate, along with tea and hobbies (a man after our own heart), was self-driving. You can catch the highlights from 9.10 to 28.35 in this edit for BBC Sounds.
James May explored self-driving as guest editor of the Today programme
Questioning at the outset whether Level 5 self-driving was even possible, he began his research by trying out the Ford BlueCruise hands-free system, which is, as we know, is NOT self-driving.
He then spoke to Dame Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, who has serious concerns about a “hybrid future” of mixed self-driving and human traffic. So far, May’s scepticism was only being reinforced. Then, as with the Christmas Lecture, Paul Newman came in to bat for self-driving.
He took May for a ride in an Oxa Ford Mondeo test car (with a safety driver) through an industrial estate on the outskirts of Oxford. “So, there we had a speedhump with a pedestrian crossing on top, and it recognised all of that,” admitted May. “This is annoying. This is slightly demolishing my prejudices. I have to say, I really might have to rewrite them a little bit.”
Newman softened the blow, saying: “You’re not wrong in the sense that it’s not immediate, but it’s hard to believe this technology isn’t going to arrive, and it’s hard to believe it isn’t going to be valuable and produce more choices.”
There followed a long interview with Transport Secretary Mark Harper, who explained: “Legislation is going through Parliament at the moment, so hopefully we’ll get that through by the end of 2024. Probably as early as 2026, people will start seeing some elements of these cars that have full self-driving capabilities being rolled-out.
“I’ve seen the technology being used in California, without a safety driver, so it exists, it works. What we’re doing is putting in place the proper legislation so that people can have full confidence in the safety.”
Responding to questions from May, “Why are we doing this? Who benefits?”, Harper said: “First of all, it will improve road safety. We already have very good road safety record in Britain, but there are still several thousand people a year killed on our roads – that could be improved.
“Second, it’s a big economic opportunity for Britain to get a big global share of the market. The final thing is there are a lot of people who currently don’t have the opportunity that many of us drivers take for granted. For example, people who have disabilities – this potentially opens up a whole new world of personal freedom.”
Is this a watershed moment in terms of UK self-driving media coverage? Time will tell, but it is certainly very welcome. Well done Oxa, and well done the BBC.
Self-driving level visual realism – a look at rFpro’s new Ray Tracing simulation software
A partner in not one but two of the major government-backed self-driving projects announced by CCAV in September 2023, Hampshire-based simulation software specialist rFpro is branching out from its traditional motorsport and automotive roots. MD Peter Daley explains how and why.
Peter Daley, Managing Director of rFpro
PD: “Yes, we’re a consortium partner in two of the Commercialising Connected and Automated Mobility Supply Chain projects – DeepSafe and Sim4CAMSens.
“DeepSafe will develop simulation-based training to help automated vehicles handle edge cases, supporting verification and validation (V&V). Project leader dRISK bring a way of analysing the full range of unexpected driving scenarios, and other partners include Imperial College London, Claytex Services and DG Cities.
“Claytex, with whom we work closely, are also taking the lead in the Sim4CAMSens project, which has a core focus on sensor modelling and evaluation. Other partners here include the University of Warwick, National Physical Laboratory, Syselek, Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult, Oxford RF and Techworkshub.
Self-driving environments
“At rFpro, we’ve been investing in driving simulation technology for years, allowing our customers to develop, test and optimise their vehicles more quickly, efficiently and effectively than they could by relying on real-world testing alone. We create very detailed large scale digital models of real-world environments, and offer high performance software which allows people to interact with those.
rFpro day/night in Tokyo simulation
“Our real-time simulation software is used by many leading OEMs and professional motorsports teams (including in F1), in vehicle dynamics, human factors and other use cases. However, the level of visual realism from images rendered in real-time using rasterising technology still wasn’t high enough to be used on its own for the training and testing of automated vehicle (AV) perception systems. Our new Ray Tracing technology addresses this.
Self-driving realism
“With Ray Tracing, we can reliably simulate the huge number of reflections created by multiple light sources in a scene, even taking into account the properties of the materials the light is hitting, and apply this to every element in the scene as perceived by a vehicle-mounted sensor moving through it.
“Ray Tracing can be applied to the modelling of cameras, radar and lidar sensors. Our solution accurately replicates things like camera shutter effects, depth of field, lens distortion and light saturation across different weather and light conditions.
“Sensor vibrations coming from the vehicle moving across an uneven road surface are allowed for, as is the effect of motion blur from the relative motion between sensor and objects such as other vehicles, pedestrians or road signs and markings.
“In effect, the new technology accurately replicates what cameras and sensors really ‘see’ and presents it in ultra-high definition (UHD). It is a big leap forward and, taken together with rFpro’s renowned real-time solution, unique in the marketplace.
“The creation and use of synthetic test and training data, on a massive scale, to supplement the real-world testing of AV perception and control systems is now realistically achievable. We are excited to be continually finding new ways to support our customers in reaching their goals in this area.”
We celebrate our 5th birthday with a refresh and a look back at our self-driving journey to date.
Thanks to Linkedin for reminding us that we’ve been providing news and views about all things self-driving for five whole years now. Happy 5th birthday Cars of the Future!
To celebrate, the eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that we’ve treated ourselves to a bit of a refresh – technical upgrades, recategorised content and updated terminology.
We’ve also picked five of our favourite stories from the archives – one for each year – which can be seen as a journey from the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’ towards the ‘Slope of Self-driving Enlightenment’.
Self-driving 2019-2024
The self-driving story that sparked Cars of the Future
2018/19 We have to begin with my Autonomous now: the shift to self-driving feature for the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI). My editor at the time, Tim Kiek, said: “I’ve featured articles on autonomous vehicles throughout my tenure but never one which explores the topic with such forensic rigour.”
Following passionate but often misinformed feedback from lovers, haters and inbetweeners, we saw an urgent need for a new UK-centric self-driving news source. Cars of the Future was born! The full 2,600-word version of Autonomous Now was our first post.
Cars of the Future joins the Zenzic self-driving revolution
2020 While the Covid 19 pandemic was raging and we were all in lockdown getting our heads around Zoom, we were delighted to be recognised as a Zenzic CAM Creator. We decided it would be interesting to find out what other CAM Creators did… and that proved to be a very fortunate decision. It began a series of popular long-form interviews which continues to this day. Significantly, it really broadened our content, from ‘cars, cars, cars’ to CAM.
The very first of these CAM Creator interviews was with Clem Robertson of R4dar, now part of Angoka: “Fighter pilots use five different methods of identification before engaging a potential bogey, and the autonomous vehicle world is doing similar with lidar, radar, digital mapping etc. Each has its shortcomings but together they create a more resilient system.”
Millbrook test-bed
2021 As the pandemic continued to dominate, we signed multiple media partnership agreements, notably with Reuters Events. These saw me moderating high profile panel discussions on everything from ADAS to clean fuel and, of course, self-driving.
At a Small Cells Forum virtual event, we met Peter Stoker, Chief Engineer at Millbrook Proving Ground, leading to this deep dive into both real-world and virtual testing: “The key to the future of self-driving is education, education, education – for everyone, the public, vehicle manufacturers, the aftermarket, recovery operators…”
Oxa’s groundbreaking zero occupancy self-driving vehicle
2022 The welcome return of face-to-face meetings and live events -press launches, trade shows and industry conferences. We renewed our deal with Reuters for Auto Tech and signed further similar agreements, including with London EV Show and MOVE. In April, we published our first newsletter – the top story was on project CAVForth.
Meanwhile, Cruise began charging for self-driving rides in San Francisco. Here, Oxbotica (soon to be Oxa) conducted the first zero-occupancy, self-driving, electric vehicle test on public roads in Europe: “An historic moment for the UK, the transport and logistics sector, and autonomous vehicle technology”, said CTO (soon to be CBE) Professor Paul Newman.
Self-driving Industry Awards 2023
2023 saw Cars of the Future website visitors, newsletter subscribers and social numbers almost double. We renewed our partnership with MOVE (which saw me host the AV stage), were invited to the Self-Driving All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), and organised the inaugural Self-driving Industry Awards.
CAVForth won the headline Vehicle of the Year Award. Other big winners (nominated by their industry peers) included Alex Kendall of Wayve, Rebecca Posner of CCAV and Oxa’s Newman. It was the best day in the history of Cars of the Future to date.
As ever, our mission remains: To chart the development of, and encourage sensible debate about, all aspects of self-driving. We’ll soon be announcing details of the Self-driving Industry Awards 2024, and we’ve got other exciting new projects in the pipeline too. Watch this space!
Cars of the Future 2024
A huge thank you for all your support and here’s to the next five years!
Report on the Self-Driving Vehicles APPG media briefing at Wayve in December 2023
The Self-Driving Vehicles All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) held a media briefing in London this week to provide an overview of the UK’s new Automated Vehicles (AV) Bill.
Held at the London HQ of self-driving tech leader Wayve, the expert panel included Sarah Gates, Director of Public Policy at Wayve, Sarah Thomson, Public Affairs Manager at insurer AXA UK, and Brian Wong, partner and specialist in transport at law firm Burges Salmon.
Wayve self-driving testing in London
Pleasingly, media in attendance included representatives from not only the usual automotive, fleet and insurance titles, but also national press. Such wider engagement can only help in terms of educating the public, with the unfortunate side-effect of reducing the gaiety resulting from hyperbolic headlines.
Self-driving explainer
Following a basic explainer on how the AV Bill will create a new safety and liability framework for the commercial deployment of self-driving vehicles, they ran through essential terminology including Authorised Self-Driving Entity (ASDE), Operational Design Domain (ODD), User-In-Charge (UiC), No-User-in-Charge (NUiC) and the SAE Levels.
The two statistics that seemed to capture most attention were:
In 2022, road traffic accidents cost the UK economy £43bn, of which £2.3bn was a direct cost to the NHS in medical treatment and ambulance services.
The DfT estimates that 85% of road traffic accidents are caused by human error incl. reckless behaviour, disobeying traffic laws, and driver impairment/distraction.
Self-driving discussion
Addressing the concern that drivers are actively resisting assisted driving solutions, AXA has published new research confirming that “41% of drivers are switching off vital safety features because they find them annoying”. This, of course, is not self-driving. As we’ve covered before, it is why some experts believe it would be safer to move straight to Level4.
Andy Keane, AXA UK Technical Head of Commercial Motor, said: “The Bill creates new government entities that will assume liability for regulating automated vehicles. Drivers will have immunity from criminal liability for how a vehicle drives while automated vehicle features are engaged.
“However, the fundamental principle of insurance for vehicles will remain unchanged. Every vehicle on our roads will still need to be insured by either the owner/registered keeper or the NUIC operator, such as someone running a fleet of self-driving vehicles.
“As this technology evolves, we expect a standard motor insurance policy to form the basis of insurance for self-driving vehicles, with adaptations made to accommodate the new technology.”
Further points of discussion included the AV legislation serving as a blueprint for the sector-specific regulation of AI-based technologies, the role of self-driving in cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the opportunity for the UK to provide global leadership on AV regulatory frameworks.
According to a new survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) specialist Focal Point Positioning, 48.9% of consumers still believe self-driving cars will make our roads more dangerous.
Key concerns, the Cambridge-based company found, relate to the reliability of the technology, liability for accidents, vulnerability to cyberattack, and potential subscription costs. Of particular interest to Focal Point was the threat of GPS spoofing, which it says is on the rise.
Self-driving safety threat
Spoofing is a form of cyberattack that targets positioning systems such as GPS, with spoofers broadcasting fake signals to confuse the GNSS receiver, potentially interfering with vehicle navigation, ADAS and automated driving systems.
Manuel Del Castillo, VP of Business Development at Focal Point, has over 20 years’ experience in the GNSS industry, having previously worked for semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom.
Manuel Del Castillo, VP of Business Development at Focal Point
“Our S-GNSS Auto solution is a software upgrade to the existing GNSS sensor in the car,” he said. “GNSS sensors are a marvel of engineering, able to compute an absolute position – latitude, longitude and altitude – anywhere in the world. However, they can suffer from accuracy problems in urban environments due to all the reflections off buildings, and they can also be subjected to RF cyberattacks, known as spoofing.
“Spoofers send malicious signals pretending to be the satellite signals, which can expose the naive design of some GNSS sensors. To combat this, our S-GNSS Auto software can run in the GNSS chips of any of the major chipmakers in the automotive industry, to generate a ‘trust zone’ around the GPS sensor.
“It can also be useful in improving the performance of suboptimal antennas, which vehicle manufacturers sometimes use because they are easier to conceal and don’t interfere so much with the design, for instance, those embedded in windscreens.
“We already have strategic investment from General Motors and are in discussion with manufacturers in Europe and the US.”
Against the backdrop of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), and with our 2023 MOVE pledge in mind, we recommend reflecting on this haunting new video from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF):
Shift to clean fuel now
Despite what event president Sultan Al Jaber (also chief exec of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company!) might think, the hugely respected WWF emphasises that oil, coal and gas use is a “main driver” of climate change.
To help people and nature, it therefore urges COP28 leaders to agree on a plan to phase out fossil fuels and move towards more efficient, sustainable, renewable energy “now”.
Clearly this doesn’t sit comfortably with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushing the deadline for new petrol and diesel car sales back to 2035. Amidst some support for this controversial move (mainly on cost grounds), but plenty of vocal criticism, we look at three leading clean fuel contenders: batteries, biofuels and hydrogen.
Battery electric
First up, the champion elect: battery electric vehicles (BEVs). With roots dating back to Robert Davidson’s 1830s electric locomotive, BEVs use a rechargeable lithium-ion battery connected to at least one electric motor.
In September, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reported the 41st consecutive month of BEV sales increases, and an impressive 18.9% year-on-year uplift. Bestsellers include Tesla’s Y and 3, Kia’s e-Niro, VW’s ID.3 and Nissan’s Leaf.
Leaving aside the question of who’s to blame for the lack of infrastructure, the UK government has committed £1.6bn to the mission, equating to 300,000 new public chargers by 2030. According to charging map provider Zap Map, there are currently 50,000 points across the UK, up 43% in just 12 months.
Serious advances are being made on recharging times too, with BP claiming its new Pulse 150kw charger can deliver up to 100-miles-worth of juice in around 15 minutes.
The range anxiety argument is fading as ever more models deliver 300+ miles on a full charge, and amazing battery advancements are being announced almost daily. For instance, Mahle recently claimed a ‘leap forward’ in cooling plate technology: 10% better cooling performance and 20% less pressure loss, all while saving 15% on materials.
This all sounds so positive, why isn’t everyone switching? Well, purchase price is still an issue. The RAC provides the example of MG Motor UK’s ZS Hatchback, with the electric version £8k more than its petrol equivalent, even with the plug-in grant. Attractive finance options help to soften this blow.
The picture gets even rosier when you look at running costs. Research by Compare the Market found an average saving of £600 per annum for EVs over petrol cars, taking into account insurance, fuel and road tax. Some suggest that fewer mechanical parts lead to lower service, maintenance and repair bills too.
Perhaps the last serious obstacle is the long waiting lists, with semiconductor supply chain problems making global headlines.
Biofuels
As with rechargeable batteries, experimentation with biofuels began in the mid-nineteenth century, using methanol or ethanol with potassium/sodium hydroxide as the catalyst. Their biggest selling point is that they are derived from renewable sources.
Millions of UK motorists use biofuels every day, whether they realise it or not. E10 unleaded petrol contains up to 10% bioethanol and B7 diesel up to 7% biodiesel. The bioethanol is made by fermenting crops such as corn and maize, while the biodiesel comes from vegetable oils combined with alcohol.
Their main drawback is that they still produce emissions when burned. The RAC also warned of E10 issues for up to 600,000 older vehicle owners. Although most would run E5, doubling the amount of ethanol caused a whole variety of issues in classics – from troublesome condensation in fuel lines to perished rubber hoses and seals.
The technology is improving though. One of the ‘second-generation’ biofuels, Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), can be used in many standard diesel engines, and is endorsed by the likes of Caterpillar, Scania and Volvo.
What’s more, bespoke fuel specialist Coryton recently launched the Sustain Classic range, which it says is “The UK’s first publicly available sustainable petrol”. It includes three grades: Super 80, with at least 80% renewable content; Super 33, with at least a third renewable; and Racing 50, with at least 50% renewable.
David Richardson, business development director at Coryton, said: “We’re setting truthful and realistic goals, producing fuels that have a meaningful impact while meeting the demands of the user.”
At the very least, biofuels can be an effective bridging technology, with the US Renewable Fuels Association backing wider adoption in both road transport and aviation.
Hydrogen
Finally, we come to that long-touted rival to BEV, hydrogen. This has the longest history of all, with Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz patenting a hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine in 1807.
Again, such vehicles are already on our roads, albeit in small numbers. Toyota makes great play of the fact that its hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (HFCEV) Mirai emits only water vapour.
“We’re fully committed to fuel cell, particularly for larger vehicles, because of the advantages in terms of range and refuelling time, but we’re also pursuing hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery electric and hydrogen combustion, keeping all options open,” explained Katherine Chamberlain, senior manager for new product development at Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK.
In March, JCB unveiled a new hydrogen combustion engine designed specifically for heavy construction and agricultural equipment. Despite investing in battery electric for its smaller vehicles, the Staffordshire-based manufacturer needed a different solution for large machines working long shifts with little available downtime for recharging.
JCB Chairman, Anthony Bamford, said: “The unique combustion properties of hydrogen enable the hydrogen engine to deliver the same power, torque and efficiency that powers JCB machines today, but in a zero-carbon way.
“Hydrogen combustion engines also offer other significant benefits. By leveraging diesel engine technology and components, they do not require rare earth elements and, critically, combustion technology is already well proven.”
A major issue is that well over 90% of all hydrogen produced globally comes from natural gas, coal and oil. However, huge sums are being invested in industrial electrolysis – splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen – to overcome this thorny hurdle.
Clean fuel choices
Transport & Environment (T&E), Europe’s leading NGO campaigning for cleaner transport, has produced a handy chart detailing why direct electrification is “by far” the best technology.
T&E chart on future car clean fuel choices
The headline figures on the drive towards 100% renewable fuel production by 2050 are stark: 94% for direct electrification, 68% for hydrogen and only 55% for power-to-liquid (petrol and diesel). Pure electric is also the clear winner in terms of the amount of original energy required, up to five times more efficient than power-to-liquid alternatives.
Matt Finch, UK Policy Manager at T&E, said: “By 2050, the vast majority of cars around the world, certainly in the UK, will be 100% battery electric. There are a few good reasons for this. The first is blindingly obvious: the grid infrastructure exists and every household has an electricity supply. It might be slow, and we advise people to use proper chargers, but technically you can already charge an electric car from billions of points around the UK.
“Using electricity is dirt cheap compared to burning oil, biofuel or hydrogen. That’s the main reason everyone will switch, apart from a few classic cars running on efuel. EVs are also quieter, smoother and generally nicer to drive.
“Biofuels are useful, although we massively over-rely on Malaysia and China for our feedstocks. What happens if they decide to refine it themselves to meet their own climate change targets? There’s an additional UK problem in that we still put millions of litres of palm-derived biodiesel into our cars. In the current round of policymaking for sustainable aviation fuel, palm is explicitly banned for environmental reasons, yet the Department for Transport still allows its use for road vehicles. That’s plain stupid.
“The fuelling question gets more interesting when you look at HGVs, but my personal take is that they will also all be battery electric. Batteries have been getting better for years and solid state is coming very soon. During the 2030s, HGVs with solid state batteries and decent ranges will arrive en masse. Then all the compelling car arguments come back in – smoother drive and far cheaper to run.
“I doubt we will ever have hydrogen trucks in the UK. There’s potentially a tiny tail of use cases, but then why should HGVs get this scarce resource ahead of aviation, shipping or the chemical industry? For various reasons, environmentally or societally, it’s hard to make a case. When you consider all the processes required to use hydrogen fuel cells, ultimately to power an electric motor, you end up asking: why bother when we can just use electricity?
“Virtually every major OEM has now stopped R&D on combustion vehicles in favour of battery vehicles. Some are funding their own battery development, some are buying them from the likes of Panasonic, but they’re all investing millions. There are tens of thousands of people in universities and manufacturing facilities around the world working on battery chemistries. That simply isn’t happening with combustion vehicles. The aviation industry is keeping a close eye on what’s happening in automotive, and it’s all focused on direct electrification.”
