AIE Awarded Horizon 2020 Funding to Combat Range Anxiety

Lichfield, Staffordshire: Ground-breaking innovations for electric vehicle propulsion technology can now be driven out to the global marketplace by UK specialist engineers Advanced Innovative Engineering (UK) Ltd thanks a funding award from the biggest ever EU Research and Innovation programme, Horizon 2020.

With over €80 billion of funding available, Horizon 2020 aims to secure Europe’s global competitiveness in world-class science by delivering the latest breakthroughs and discoveries to the world; creating economic growth and sustainability.

AIE (UK) Ltd, as an organisation that is on the cusp of finalising game-changing propulsion technology for electric vehicles, welcomed the award of a €1 million programme1 by Horizon 2020 to test their latest innovation, the CREEV range-extender within a light commercial vehicle.

Designed to address the issue of range anxiety [the fear that an electric vehicle has insufficient range to reach a destination], AIE’s CREEV range-extender technology will help overcome the major barrier to large scale adoption of electric vehicles and unlock significant environmental benefits through reduced CO2 emissions.

Unlike the bulky and heavy piston engines currently used in hybrid-electric vehicles, AIE’s CREEV (Compound Rotary Engine for Electric Vehicles) technology benefits from the inherent advantages of the low vibration, lightweight and space-saving rotary engine that meets vehicle OEM needs with its patented technology that reduces wear, eliminates oil loss and increases efficiency.

The novel CREEV range extender system delivers an exceptionally efficient power plant by harnessing unburnt fuel in the engine exhaust to improve combustion efficiency, lower emissions and reduce noise as the rotary engine drives the generator, charging the electric vehicle battery for greater range.

The Horizon 2020 funding is instrumental in ensuring this breakthrough range-extender technology can be fully appreciated across the globe by enabling AIE to install, test and comprehensively demonstrate the capabilities of CREEV within a fully functioning electric LCV (light commercial vehicle).

This testing programme will allow AIE to demonstrate how CREEV successfully meets the needs of both electric vehicle OEMs and consumers by means of its cost-effective, lightweight and compact design that not only improves consumer confidence by efficiently extending vehicle range between charging stations, but does so quietly, using low fuel consumption and with low emissions. With this low carbon range-extender unit encouraging purchase of electric vehicles, CREEV can also be instrumental in supporting Europe in making progress towards overall transport emission targets.

To follow the journey of the Horizon 2020 CREEV testing programme, simply connect with AIE on LinkedIn or Twitter. For more details on AIE technologies and capabilities, visit www.aieuk.com.