GKN Automotive launches Advanced Research Centre to accelerate the UK’s electrified future

GKN Automotive says it is partnering with the University of Nottingham and Newcastle University to push the boundaries of eDrive technology and accelerate modular innovation. This collaboration will focus on the development of ultra-high efficiency EDUs for future electric vehicles.

The £3.5m investment in the Advanced Research Centre, will see it co-located across three leading engineering facilities. The project will be virtually shared between the engineering departments at the University of Nottingham and Newcastle University, with research teams at each university operating collaboratively with engineers at the GKN Automotive Innovation Centre.

Both partner universities are part of the Advanced Propulsion Centre’s ‘spoke’ community. The initiative brings together specialist academic, technological, and commercial expertise from across the UK to share best practice for the development of low emission propulsion technologies. The University of Nottingham is the APC’s spoke for power electronics, and home to the Driving the Electric Revolution (DER) Industrialisation Centre – Midlands; while Newcastle University is the spoke for electric motors and leads the national network of four DER Industrialisation Centres including the Driving the Electric Revolution Industrialisation Centre – Northeast.

Gordon Day, managing director, GKN Automotive Innovation Centre, said: “We are extremely proud that this research will be in partnership with Newcastle University and the University of Nottingham, two renowned and respected global leaders in automotive electrification engineering research. Both institutions will also play a leading role in helping us develop a supply of high-calibre engineering talent, which is essential to enable us to put the UK at the forefront of global automotive industry innovation.”