Interest in U.K. Low-Carbon-Vehicle Show Grows

Exhibition space is being increased 40% as a record 67 businesses enter the low-carbon-vehicle exhibition set for Sept. 7-8 at Rockingham Race Circuit in Northamptonshire, U.K.

Organized by the government-supported Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies (Cenex), the event, dubbed LCV2011, attracts many of the world’s major car, commercial vehicle and public-service-vehicle manufacturers, as well as a record number of technology and infrastructure businesses.

Ford to feature Transit Connect BEV at U.K. exhibition.

Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Iveco and Mercedes-Benz confirm they will exhibit at the LCV2011, which combines a business-to-business conference, exhibition and ride-and-drive experience.

Ford will display vehicles including the ECOnetic Fiesta and Transit Connect BEV (battery-electric vehicle). GM will show its hydrogen fuel-cell Vauxhall Ampera.

The LCV2011 is Cenex’s fourth annual event. A range of vehicles will be available for delegates on the ride-and-drive course – from hybrids and highly advanced internal-combustion vehicles to those powered by batteries and hydrogen-fuel cells.

Among the scheduled speakers will be Graham Hoare, executive director-powertrain engineering for Ford of Europe.

The U.K. Technology Strategy Board will release data from the first three months of the world’s largest low-carbon-vehicle trial. The study is monitoring 329 electric and low-carbon cars of all types, from vans to luxury sports cars, on U.K. roads as part of the board’s ultra-low-carbon-vehicle demonstrator program launched in 2009.

Cenex says it expects the LCV2011 to attract more than 2,000 delegates from auto makers, suppliers and infrastructure providers to fleet operators.

Cenex Chairman Brendan Connor says the event will demonstrate that the U.K. auto industry is at the forefront of developing future mobility technologies.

“It is becoming increasingly apparent that the industry’s first challenge is to advance the technologies – and required infrastructures – to make low-carbon vehicles more economic to manufacture and easier to sell,” he says.

“The second challenge is to educate buyers, private, public and commercial about the range of options available now and in the future.

“LCV2011 is about increasing the momentum in overcoming these challenges and helping exhibitors and delegates, whether manufacturers, technology innovators or end users from the public and private sectors, to do business together,” Connor says.