Truck driving on soil path next to a lake in Africa

CLEAN: Clean Logistics for Emerging African Nations

Funder

Innovate UK - Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC19)

Value

£17,161,107

Value to Coventry University

£712,006.94

Project team

PI Dr Marcos Kauffman

Project Duration

01/06/2022 - 30/10/2024

Project overview

This project accelerates the development of technologies that deliver zero tailpipe emissions, saving 43 million tonnes of CO2, while also unlocking £53m of UK investment (6x ROI) and creating 114 jobs.

According to global management consulting company, McKinsey & Company, 60% of the African population is smallholder farmers, and their biggest supply-side problem is the cost of getting products to market. This market of 700m people is not served by existing auto-OEMs. To access this market there are two enablers for success: a new type of vehicle AND a new business model that suits the market.

OX has developed the purpose-designed 3.5-tonne OX truck and a unique Electric-Transport-as-a-Service (electric-TaaS) business model. By offering transport on a Pay-As-You-Go basis (eliminating up-front capital), it opens up a TAM of 847,000 vehicles. OX is piloting this approach in Rwanda achieving 42% month-on-month growth. By 2030 OX projects revenues to be $2Bn pa.

Project objectives

This project develops the technology to enable this business opportunity by delivering:

Advanced, affordable EV technology for the OX. Creating the first UK Tier1 high-volume electric drive unit (EDU) manufacturing facility, debuting a new process and approach to delivering volume flex without high CapEx. Manufacturing-ready, energy-dense, long-life, lower-cost battery with a UK cell sourcing-feasibility-study. Development of a world-first lightweight, resilient structure for the OX
A closed-loop digital ecosystem to optimise Operating Expense (OpEx). By combining a connected vehicle with real-world performance monitoring, off-board digital twins and an automated DVP & manufacturing systems, this project unlocks a 5x acceleration of the design change implementation process vs typical OEMs. This facilitates the transition to Electric Transport-as-a-Service (electric-TaaS) by enabling rapid iteration for OpEx.

Impact Statement

The CU contribution to this project will address both academic and industrial knowledge gaps related to the concept of digital twins (DT). This includes: the use of DT across the product life-cycle; definition of DT use-cases; technical implementation of DTs and use of Asset Administration Shells (AAS) in complex nested DT use cases; DT levels of fidelity; DT data ownership challenges related to horizontal integration; and DT integration between multiple virtual entities.

The key CU objectives include:

To develop a new set of mandatory DT use cases to support OX's e-Mobility-as-a-Service value proposition.
To develop a novel methodology for capturing and defining the scope of DTs across the product, process, manufacturing, in-use and as-maintained lifecycles.
To research and develop a novel methodology for the characterisation of physical observable objects using standardised metadata, models and sub-models designed for interoperable DTs.
To develop appropriate measurement systems and select appropriate technologies for parameter measurement of physical observable objects.
To develop appropriate models for digital to physical interfaces - Data collection and control.
To define, develop and configure a novel pilot environment for representative DT trials.
To execute experiments and trials for each use case running end-to-end scenarios.
To evaluate results, reiterate design and develop roadmap for future high-fidelity, interoperable automotive DTs.