Devon offroad vehicle maker to license its tech for manufacturers

More than 60 percent of funds have been raised on Crowdcube for South West all-terrain electric vehicle creator EMotive.

The Exeter firm is building a 6 wheel drive all-electric off-road commercial vehicle platform, believed to be a world first.

Its target fund of £180,000 is currently at £116,000 from 94 investors. The UK government has announced plans to phase out sales of new diesel and petrol HGVs within 12 years. EMotive hopes to license its technology to existing manufacturers.

A spokesperson for EMotive, which has already secured almost £2m in investments, said: “We will support the cost-effective adoption of zero-emission vehicles by producing a versatile commercial vehicle platform that can be produced by manufacturers for various uses, under licence.”

According to the company’s investment page, the UK off-road vehicles market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21 percent by 2027. This is reflected to some extent in the report Off-road Vehicle Market - Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact and Forecast (2021-2026 ), which predicts the global off-road vehicle market to hit £13.1 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 4.1 percent between 2021-2026.

The research also expects North America to remain the largest market for off-road vehicles, followed by Europe.

EMotive says its demonstrator vehicle has come after five years of engineering research and development. It says it is in early stage discussions with “one of the world's leading producers and suppliers of firefighting equipment”, which would help to create the technology for its fire rescue all-terrain vehicles.

According to the company, “funds raised will be used to integrate the powertrain into the prototype chassis, allowing us to complete the final demonstrations to manufacturing partners and end consumers”.