17th Aug 2020
The Automotive Group at Reddie & Grose recently held a virtual round-table with a select group of experts in the industry. We had representatives from an electric vehicle start-up, an energy services company, an automotive funding platform, an energy and sustainability strategy consultancy, the IMechE’s Powertrains and Fuels group, and a barrister who is a specialist in the law of Connected & Autonomous Vehicles.We set ourselves the ambitious agenda of discussing the likely key technologies to emerge in the next 10 years in powertrains, energy storage and delivery, autonomy, and sustainability, and whether there would be any legal challenges to overcome, IP or otherwise. With the long list of discussion topics in mind, we jumped off from the UK government’s proposal to end the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles by 2035, or even 2032. What would that mean for the industry, and would it be effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions? The conversation flowed from there …
24th Jun 2020
In a concerted effort to tackle climate change, countries around the world have proposed to ban conventional petrol and diesel cars within the next few decades, paving the way for an electric vehicle revolution. In our previous blog, The Future Of Automotive Powertrains, we found that in the realm of patents, car manufacturers favour batteries (and lots of them) to power their electric vehicles. In this blog we look at the capabilities and shortcomings of batteries and how fuel cell technology may yet play a part in powering our transport networks.
12th Jun 2020
One of the major problems that faces the emerging electric vehicle (EV) market is the range of electric vehicles. While, due to improvements in battery technology and car design and efficiency, some electric cars now have ranges well over 300 miles, a more comparable level with the range of their internal combustion (IC) cousins, they often come at the cost of, well, a much higher cost than petrol or diesel cars. However, advances recently published in the journal Nature are mapping the route towards a potential solution.
30th Sep 2019
In modern manufacturing and design processes, computer models and simulations play a key and ever expanding role. Whereas previously many different prototypes may have had to be individually machined and then tested, now each design can be tested virtually. This allows optimal designs to be found without incurring any of the expense, or expending any of the time, associated with manufacturing multiple custom prototype components and designs- here we focus on the automotive sector.
30th Aug 2019
This summer, Theresa May set down in UK law a legal commitment for the UK to be at net zero carbon emissions by the year 2050. It may seem like a lifetime away to some, but a significant overhaul of a wide range of sectors will be required in order to meet this target – here we will consider one of the major carbon contributors – the transport sector.
4th Apr 2019
Although nearly all commercially available hybrids and battery electric vehicles use Li-ion batteries, there are some concerns regarding energy density and safety of Li-ion batteries, especially in the transport sector.Replacing the liquid electrolyte with a solid electrolyte is being considered as one of the possible ways to both mitigate the safety concerns and to improve the currently limited energy density.
22nd Mar 2019
This is a tale of the Old World of Internal Combustion Engines versus the New of Electrified Powertrains, and of the Giant automotive OEMs versus the Minnows that are automotive start-ups – but mainly statistics showing patent filing trends in the automotive powertrain sector