Open Call: DRIVE35 Scale-up Programme (United Kingdom)

DRIVE35 (Driving Research and Investment in Vehicle Electrification) is a Department for Business and Trade led programme aimed at transforming the UK’s automotive industry. This is achieved by supporting R&D and the commercial scale up of innovative zero emission vehicle technologies, and unlocking capital investment in zero emission vehicles, batteries and their wider supply chain.

Aims

• The aim of this competition is to support detailed feasibility studies into the deployment of UK based manufacturing facilities for zero emission vehicle technologies, such as:
  • pilot scale manufacturing
  • demonstration scale manufacturing
  • industrial scale manufacturing

Technology Scope

• This competition aims to support feasibility studies, enabling investment into manufacturing of strategically important technologies for on board vehicle applications in one or more of the following areas:
  • electrical energy storage: development of batteries, supercapacitors, their components, management, and integrated systems
  • electric machines and associated driveline
  • power electronics including Vehicle to Everything (V2X)
  • internal combustion engine (ICE) for off road applications, they will fund project proposals that support a transition to zero emissions, utilising non fossil fuels
  • lightweighting materials and manufacturing processes
  • fuel cell systems and associated balance of plant
  • hydrogen storage and management systems
  • zero emission vehicle assembly

Funding Information

• Up to £5 million has been allocated to fund innovation projects in this competition. Funding will be in the form of a grant.
• Your total grant funding request must be between £150,000 and £750,000 and no more than 60% of your total project costs if you are an SME, or 50% for large organisations.

Scope of Activities

• They recognise that companies in different segments of the zero emission vehicle supply chain use different terminology to describe their manufacturing development phases. Their intention with the wording of the competition is described below.
  • These are not suggested as absolute definitions, but instead as general categories to enable you to communicate the intention of your project:
  • pilot scale: scale up stage at which flexibility is key, utilised to develop initial production capability under real world conditions, whilst still maintaining significant flexibility for iterative improvements
  • demonstration scale: scale up to intermediate production scale that reflects a production representative manufacturing workflow, focusing on repeatability with lower flexibility than pilot, and often representing final stage of manufacturing validation before industrial scale production
  • industrial scale: full scale industrial production targeting high volume applications, deployed to fully realise the production volume potential for a product, utilising large scale industrial facilities, employing mass manufacturing techniques

Ineligible Projects

• They are not funding projects that:
  • request grant greater than 60% of total project costs for an SME or 50% for a large business
  • are focused on technology feasibility, technical research or technical product development
  • do not have a robust future plan to enter the zero emission vehicle supply chain
  • are not aligned with the UK Industrial Strategy
  • are focused on the development or production of low carbon fuels
  • are not of future benefit to the automotive sector
  • are focused on technologies or processes which are too technologically immature to scale with increasing market demand
  • are focused on fossil fuelled internal combustion technology
  • are focused on the production of hydrogen
  • are focused on off vehicle charging infrastructure
  • are focused primarily on the development of digital or data technologies
  • are focused on small personal mobility applications such as e-scooters, e-bikes, or other low powered mobility devices
• They cannot fund projects that are:
  • dependent on export performance, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
  • dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example, giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product

Target Market

• You must develop business cases that take new technologies towards scale up, market entry and industrialisation. You must outline how your project will enable you to enter the following vehicle supply chain or markets:
  • On-highway vehicles, for example, L-category, motorbike, car, bus and truck applications
  • Off highway vehicles and non-road mobile machinery (NRMM), for example, construction, agriculture, mining and other off-highway applications

Eligibility Criteria

• Your project:
  • Your project must:
    • last up to nine months
    • carry out all of its project work in the UK
    • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
    • start by 1 January 2026
    • end by 31 August 2026
• Lead organisation:
  • To work alone your organisation must be a UK registered business of any size.

For more information, visit GOV.UK.