The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) has announced the winners of the Low Carbon Urban Mobility Technology Challenge – a competition to identify and promote low carbon innovations with the potential to cut carbon emissions and other environmental impacts arising from transport in cities.

The winning proposals include a lightweight, driverless electric bus; a system to improve the efficiency of urban freight transport; a bus-taxi hybrid (a ‘buxi’); a low carbon, community-managed car club; plus two variants of lightweight, single seat electric vehicles.

The winning entrants were selected by an independent panel and will present their solutions to a specialist group of executives from vehicle manufacturers and other potential investors or supporters at a private event to be held in early October.

The winners are:

  • Capoco Design Ltd
  • Ecospin Ltd
  • Esoterix Systems Ltd
  • Hugh Frost Designs Ltd
  • SusMobil Ltd
  • WeatherVelo Ltd


The LowCVP managing director, Andy Eastlake, said: “The LowCVP’s Technology Challenge shows how adept UK engineers and other specialists can be in developing innovative and effective concepts and solutions. The Challenge brings these great ideas for reducing the impact of our movements around cities to the attention of potential partners and customers providing new market opportunities for some outstanding UK businesses.

“The ideas again challenge conventional thinking and show how different approaches to mobility might reduce the overall carbon impact significantly.”

Dave Greenwood of Ricardo Ltd and chair of the LowCVP’s Innovation Working Group (IWG) said: “The IWG actively seeks to promote development and deployment of new technologies to reduce CO2 and for the commercial benefit of the UK. Our series of technology challenges are devised to encourage new, sometimes radical thinking and to provide the winners with a platform to assist their ideas in gaining commercial traction. We are delighted by the breadth of the applications received and by the quality of the winning submissions. Once again the UK has shown its capacity for directed innovation.”