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| Steve Nendick for Cummins with the ‘Hedgehog’ |
Steve Nendick, Cummins Marketing Communications Director for Europe, shows the scale of the Cummins QSK95 diesel engine, dubbed the ‘Hedgehog’, a 95-liter, 16-cylinder engine built for giant mining haul trucks and rail locomotives. The Hedgehog makes 2 982 kW (4 000 Bhp) and more than 16,000 Nm of torque.
It is not the biggest engine in the Cummins stable, there is also a 120-liter, 20-cylinder version of the Hedgehog, but Europe is now throwing billions of rands at company’s like Cummins to make smaller engines using technology currently used only in F1 engines.
Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) will invest £1 billion
(R17,9 billion) during the next decade to develop new engines, excavators and
buses that use Formula 1 technology.
The APC is funded jointly by the UK Government and the automotive
industry. Its aim is to encourage the development, commercialisation and
manufacture of greener and more efficient engines for the vehicles of the
future.
The new scheme was announced last year in the government’s
industrial strategy for the UK’s automotive sector.
“By 2050, very few, if any, new cars will be powered solely by the
traditional internal combustion engines, so it is important that the UK car
industry is at the cutting edge of low carbon technologies,” said UK Business
Secretary Vince Cable when he announced the scheme last year.
“The Advanced Propulsion Centre, launched as part of our industrial
strategy, will help to position the UK as a leading innovator while also
securing jobs and strengthening supply chains.”
The period for funding requests opened in December 2013 and closed
in February this year.
Awards up to £75 million were offered.
The first four awards have been given to Ford, GKN Land Systems,
Cummins and JCB.
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| Ford little 1-litre Ecoboost is deserving of a kiss. |
Ford will receive £13,1 million towards a £100 million programme to
work with partners on updating its EcoBoost engine. The funding will help to
accelerate the rate at which low carbon technologies are introduced as a means
of delivering improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.
GKN Land Systems will receive £7,5 million towards its £16 million
project to develop and deploy the “Gyrodrive” system in buses.
Gyrodrive aims to recover the braking energy of a bus as it
decelerates and use it to power subsequent acceleration.
It uses technology developed by the Williams Formula 1 team.
Another project for buses, by Cummins, will receive a £4,9 million
grant towards its total £9,9 million project cost for developing new stop-start
diesel engine technology to reduce emissions.
JCB, with its partner Flybrid, will receive £3,3 million as part of
a £7,3 million project to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of
diggers.
It is estimated that the carbon emissions of a 22-ton excavator
will be reduced by around 16 tons per year.
Going forward, the APC will run bi-annual competitions to determine
the provision of funding, opening in April and October of each year. — WR.
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www.automotivecouncil.co.uk has more info for interested parties.
