These two project consortia will be allocated part of a total £23 million for 16 innovative low carbon vehicle development programmes. Including investments from companies such as Lotus, these projects collectively represent a total value of £52 million.
Lotus Engineering is a key consortium member of the Zero Emission London Taxi Commercialisation project and is working alongside Intelligent Energy, LTI Ltd and TRW Conekt. Building on Lotus’ considerable experience in developing high technology hybrid demonstrator vehicles, and supporting its many clients on electric vehicle programmes, this project will see the introduction of commercial fleets of zero-emission fuel cell hybrid taxis primarily for London by 2012, and other cities by 2014.
Zero Emission London Taxi Commercialisation
The fuel cell taxi project pushes the complexity of this type of vehicle to a new level of advanced technology. Lotus Engineering will integrate the fuel cell engine with the electric drive train and hydrogen storage system, firstly bench testing, then integrating them back into a ‘buck’ vehicle and finally packaging the assembly into two taxis for full vehicle testing.
Limo-Green
The second project, Limo-Green, takes a Jaguar as a basis for the development proving out the concept of a large luxury hybrid executive saloon, utilising an advanced drive motor, small battery pack and a small Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) for sustained cruising. In a collaboration between Lotus Engineering, Jaguar Cars Ltd, MIRA Ltd and Caparo Vehicle Technologies, the project aim is to demonstrate a large, prestigious executive saloon with less than 120 g/km emissions. Lotus Engineering will design and build a number of prototype Auxiliary Power Units and provide technical support for installation into the vehicle. The APU is an extremely efficient system, with ultrahigh thermal efficiency and high power output.