Special commendation: Electric avenue

Judges’ special commendation for environmental technology winner/500Nm modular YASA motor/delta motorsport/ oxford university

It is becoming increasingly obvious that electric cars are going to be a part of our future. Whether powered by hydrogen fuel cells or charged up as part of a smart-grid system, all of these cars need electric drive-trains. The form of these drives is far from settled, though, and Delta Motorsport, a Silverstone-based company working on a four-seat electric coupe, turned to a research team at Oxford University to find a solution.

The Oxford researchers, at the Electric Power Group (EPG) in the engineering department, have an interesting track record in this area. Led by Prof Malcolm McCulloch, the researchers specialise in lightweight motors that produce high torque, based around a concept first suggested by environmental engineers at the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado: that electric cars must be as light as possible.