SOCRATES

"The Government's recently announced UK plan for tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations focuses on delivering cleaner air in the shortest time possible that will enable the UK to become a global leader in air quality. The forthcoming Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill will drive necessary infrastructure changes to support rapid update of electric vehicles.

Light commercial vehicles (LCVs) are one of the fastest growing market segments driven by more sophisticated online shopping behaviours and increasing options for customer collection. The proliferation of last mile delivery vehicles is no coincidence as retailers find innovative ways of attracting consumers. To satisfy cleaner air requirements, delivery vehicles will need to reduce their emissions.

Nissan, Ceres Power and The Welding Institute (TWI) have created a collaborative industrial R&D project consortium. This consortium aims to demonstrate a compact, high power density, low emission solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with Nissan leading system design for range extension of light commercial electric vehicles (LCEV) such as the Nissan e-NV200\. With a goal to double the range of the demonstrator BEV to over 600km, the consortium will offer an innovative solution to electric vehicle range extension. This solution minimises impact on payload or capacity whilst maximising the potential to increase time spent making deliveries and generating revenue.

Within a Nissan designed range extender module suitable for operation with a variety of high efficiency fuel types (including biofuels), the project scope will involve the design, build, test and demonstration of a compact, robust, fast-response, UK produced SOFC stack. The project looks to raise the market attractiveness of EV by doubling LCEV range to enable long periods of operation without electrical recharge from the grid.

This highly disruptive approach supports the UK's move towards greater use of electric vehicles and access, on an equal footing, the 1.4 million annual EU sales of light commercial vehicles. Furthermore, the wider scale adoption of LCEVs makes significant progress towards the UK's 2030-50 low carbon energy targets. The project will grow the skills and capabilities of UK engineers and technicians for design, build and testing of SOFC stack and systems."