More Automotive Grant Funding Details from APC

Source: APC

Today, the APC hosted a launch event for the future of automotive funding. This puts more flesh on the bones of the recent announcement of £2bn funding up to 2030, plus £500m from 2030– 2035.

The overall idea is that the competitions become more joined-up, and a new funding stream for production scale-up will be available. That will fill in the one glaring gap which has bedevilled automotive funding up to now – how can SMEs get new technology into production?

The key points are:

Supporting Innovation

The former Niche Vehicle Network competitions are combined with APC’s Mobilise (formerly TDAP) accelerator – no bad thing.

The Mobilise accelerator continues as before, and is now supported by the Demonstrate programme. This is similar to the old ARMD (Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator), but the big advantage is that it will be a regular, six-monthly programme, rather than ad-hoc.  Grants are up to £1.5m and the duration of projects is up to 12 months – just like ARMD.

Collaborate is the new name for the main APC Collaborative R&D grants (e.g. APC 26). Grants are up to £25m (although the project will need to be led by a major OEM or Tier 1 to get anything like that amount). Collaborate now includes Software Defined Vehicles (SDV) and manufacturing competitiveness.

Both Demonstrate and Collaborate are open now.

Accelerating Scale Up

This is the new funding stream.

Feasibility Studies: Up to £750K grant, starting by 01/12/25 and lasting up to nine months. Open now.

Scale Up Fund: Details have not yet been released – they will probably follow in September. The grant size is expected to be up to £20m with a project duration of up to six years, and it will be to get new technology into pilot production. The idea is that, by demonstrating both that the new technology works and that it can be manufactured, it will be much easier to attract investment to achieve volume production.

Enabling Transformation

This is the established Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF). It is for major capex projects to manufacture components (e.g. battery packs or EDUs) for zero emission vehicles. One change is that whole vehicles will be eligible for the Transformation fund.

Comment

The new funding systems is both more streamlined and more comprehensive. All the changes are for the better:

·         NVN is no longer a separate operation

·         Ad-hoc ARMD has become a regular Demonstrate programme

·         Scale Up could be a game-changer, helping to fill the gap between developing one prototype and full production.

·         Collaborate has widened its scope to include software

·         Transformation has also widened its scope.

You might think these are all sensible changes that did not require months of debate and consideration. However, this is government we are talking about. To get a serious amount of new money in the present economic circumstances, and then channel it through a well-thought-out funding structure, is borderline miraculous.

If you are considering applying to any of the new streams, please do get in touch. We have won grants for all the preceding funding streams, so we are perfectly placed to lead your application for the new ones.