Automotive Transformation Fund Feasibility Studies: Round 3

The Automotive Transformation Fund supports the industrialisation at scale of a high-value electrified automotive supply chain in the UK.

APC is seeking proposals from single organisations or consortiums for business case feasibility studies up to the value of £1 million.

These feasibility studies must produce a decision-ready business case, in preparation for projects which will develop large scale manufacturing facilities in the UK.

The resulting projects must support the UK automotive industry in:

• increasing business confidence in making large scale manufacturing investments
• building electrified vehicle supply chains

Your project must:

• have total project costs of no more than £1 million
• start on or after the 1 May 2022
• end on or before 31 March 2023
• be completed within 6 months

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size, carry out its project work in the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.

Non-UK registered companies and research organisations are eligible to apply for funding as a lead or part of a project team if they set up an active UK registered business before they start their project and carry out all funded work in the UK.

There are no restrictions on the number of applications an eligible organisation can lead or partner on.

This competition is to support companies in the development of an investment business case to secure large scale automotive supply chain manufacturing in the UK.

These business case feasibility studies must:

• result in a detailed business case enabling a decision either to invest in the project, and therefore the UK, or showing clearly the additional steps or measures to do so
• prioritise the automotive sector; this does not exclude spill over use in other sectors
• deliver a closeout report and attend a meeting with APC, to review the business case, its outcomes and next steps, prior to closure and payment of the final claim

APC will fund a portfolio of feasibility studies across the technologies listed in the specific themes section. Your business case must prioritise the scale up in areas mentioned in the Automotive Transformation Strategy for an electrified supply chain. Your project must prioritise scale up and can focus on but not be limited to:

• batteries, including cells (gigafactories)
• electric motors and drives
• power electronics
• fuel cells and on-vehicle hydrogen storage
• upstream supply chain for: batteries including cells, electric motors and drives, power electronics or fuel cells and on-vehicle hydrogen storage

An online briefing event will be held on Monday 1st February 2022: click here for details.