Thirty-three pioneering automotive projects have been selected to receive more than £47m in government funding. This is as part of the UK government’s £4bn DRIVE35 programme, delivered by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) in partnership with the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) and Innovate UK.
DRIVE35 forms a core part of the UK government’s Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan and Industrial Strategy, supporting the transition to zero-emission vehicle technologies. The programme supports businesses through targeted funding from early-stage innovation to commercialisation and manufacturing scale-up.
Britain invented the modern motor industry and we’re determined to ensure the next generation of vehicles are designed and built here too.
Blair McDougall MP, Industry Minister
It aims to help businesses bring innovative technologies to market, creating skilled jobs, attracting private investment, strengthening domestic supply chains and reinforcing the UK’s position as a global leader in automotive innovation.
The latest funding allocation will leverage over £90m of total project investment, supporting technologies across electrification, battery innovation, advanced manufacturing, digitalisation, circular economy solutions and zero-emission mobility, combining UK government grant funding with significant private sector co-investment.
The successful projects span multiple DRIVE35 funding streams, demonstrating how the programme supports businesses at every stage of the innovation journey.
- Mobilise: Early-stage start-ups, university spinouts and SMEs supporting breakthrough automotive innovation. Sixteen innovative businesses awarded over £2.7m.
- Collaborate: Enabling collaborative R&D projects to accelerate innovation. Two collaborative R&D projects awarded over £8m.
- Demonstrate: Supporting real-world demonstration of innovative technologies. Ten projects awarded £9m.
- Scale-up Fund: Helping businesses bridge the gap between innovation and manufacturing at scale. Five projects awarded £26.9m.
Industry Minister Blair McDougall MP said: “Britain invented the modern motor industry and we’re determined to ensure the next generation of vehicles are designed and built here too. This investment will secure skilled jobs, strengthen our manufacturing heartlands and help drive the reindustrialisation of Britain.”
“Through our Modern Industrial Strategy we’re backing working people and British businesses to deliver growth in every part of the country.”
Ian Constance, Chief Executive at the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK, said: “The projects announced today demonstrate the depth of innovation and engineering excellence that exists across the UK automotive sector. Through DRIVE35, we are supporting businesses to move promising technologies to commercial deployment and manufacturing at scale.
This investment is about far more than individual projects. It is about strengthening the UK’s capability to design, develop and build the technologies that will define the vehicles of the future. By bringing together industry, government and academia, DRIVE35 is helping create the conditions for long-term growth, increasing investor confidence and reinforcing the UK’s position as one of the world’s leading destinations for automotive innovation.”
Alongside today’s DRIVE35 announcement, the UK government has also confirmed the latest projects to receive support through the CAM Pathfinder programme, which is accelerating the deployment of Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) technologies across the UK.
An autonomous excavator, the expansion of a self-driving bus trial and autonomous vehicles for airports, highways and city streets are among the latest projects to receive funding.
Flannery, one of the UK’s largest plant hire businesses and Gravis Robotics have secured funding from the first CAM Pathfinder: Enable competition to develop a first-of-its-kind, automated excavator for the construction industry.
The UK construction industry is facing unprecedented demand over the next decade, with over £530bn earmarked for development, but with an ageing workforce and severe skills shortages looming, the organisations are hopeful of demonstrating how embracing automation could help keep Britain building.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) estimates that Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) could deliver a £66bn annual economic boost to the UK by 2040. While often associated with passenger cars, the construction sector is also seen as a major beneficiary, with the potential to utilise automated off-highway machinery and logistics to improve worksite safety and efficiency.
The latest projects will help realise that opportunity by supporting innovation and commercial deployment across multiple UK regions, creating opportunities for high-value jobs, increasing productivity and strengthening domestic supply chains.
The construction project is one of nine successful projects announced today, demonstrating how CAM technologies are being leveraged to drive opportunities across a wide range of sectors.
Connector, a self-driving public bus service in Cambridge which has facilitated over 2,000 journeys across 700 miles of public road since its launch in June 2025, is the second project to have received UK Government Grant funding from Enable, which will see the trial expanded to explore further benefits of deploying CAM on public roads and will run until June 2027.
A further seven technical demonstrator projects including autonomous airside vehicles for airports, winter gritters and city-ready passenger-carrying vehicles have also secured funding from the first CAM Pathfinder: Demonstrate competition.
McDougall added: “Britain’s autonomous vehicle sector is world-class, and with our Modern Industrial Strategy we’re bringing business and science together to support the innovators and businesses who are shaping the future of transport.
“By backing these cutting-edge technologies with the funding to scale up we’re helping this innovative sector to drive growth and jobs in every part of the UK, and I want to congratulate all the winners on their success and their role in reinforcing Britain’s leadership in this fast-growing industry.”
Together, DRIVE35 and CAM Pathfinder demonstrate the breadth of the UK’s investment in automotive innovation, supporting technologies from zero-emission powertrains and manufacturing through to connected and automated vehicle deployment.
Demonstrate and Enable are part of the UK government’s CAM Pathfinder programme, announced in the Industrial Strategy Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan with the aim of growing the UK’s £3.7bn Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) industry. CAM Pathfinder is delivered by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) in partnership with Zenzic and Innovate UK.
The projects funded by Enable include:
- Highly Automated Excavators for Autonomous Earthmoving: Led by Flannery and Gravis Robotics, the project will see the businesses trial a first-of-its-kind, fully autonomous earthmoving system installed across six excavators, enabling autonomous trenching, bulk excavation, and truck loading.
- Commercialising Connector: Led by Cambridgeshire County Council, in partnership with Alexander Dennis, Anthrometric Solutions, Coriva, Fusion Procession and Whippet Coaches, the Commercialising Connector project aims to progress the technology and vehicles utilised by the connector project from level three autonomy to level four.
The projects funded by Demonstrate include:
- Dynamic Braking for Autonomous Vehicles (D-BrAVe): Led by Alcon Advanced Technologies with support from the University of Surrey and EVIE Autonomous, the project aims to deliver a commercially scalable, fail‑operational Brake‑By‑Wire (BBW) system with Anti‑Lock Braking (ABS) and provisional Electronic Stability Control (ESC) specifically designed for No‑User‑In‑Charge (NUIC) Level‑4 autonomous vehicles.
- Airside Sentry: Led by Aurrigo in partnership with WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group), with oversight and guidance from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the project team will design, build, and test an autonomous vehicle in controlled environments before trialling it in real airport conditions at Teesside Airport.
- Accelerating the Development of L4 Autonomous Vehicles with Photorealistic Simulation at Scale: Led by Five AI, the project aims to strengthen UK Autonomous Vehicle competitiveness by advancing tools and methods that support commercial deployment of Level 4 AVs.
- Automated Highway Maintenance Vehicles Phase 2: A partnership between Ringway, Fusion Processing and Econ Engineering, the project will see the consortium develop and trial an Automated Impact Protection Vehicle (AIPV) and Automated Winter Gritter (AGritter) equipped with automated driving, crash‑attenuation systems, specialist highway maintenance functionality and integrated spreading control systems.
- DRIVEN BY SOUND+: Led by Calyo, in partnership with Benedex and Cranfield University, the project aims to explore and develop an all‑weather perception subsystem for reliable automated driving across environments.
- ADventure: Led by Nissan and WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group), the ADventure project aims to develop a city‑ready autonomous mobility service model enabling safe commercial deployment in urban environments.
- 5D RADAR PERCEPTION FOR INTELLIGENT DRIVING (5D RAPID) : Led by Oxford RF, in partnership with IPG Automotive, Ecosar Tech, HALO DRIVE, Coventry University and Cranfield University, 5D RAPID aims to develop advanced 5D radar technology for safer automated driving, enabling cost-effective vehicle perception, and strengthening the UK CAM supply chain.
Commenting on the announcement, Martijn Gerlag, Field Application Engineer at Fluke Corporation, argued that while this is good news and shows that Andy Burnham’s government is taking the EV sector’s concerns seriously, the biggest challenge facing these manufacturers – building vital skills – is still being left out of the conversation.
“This latest announcement is a step in the right direction, but the EV revolution isn’t being stalled by batteries, infrastructure, or regulation: it’s being stalled by a lack of skilled technicians.
“We can pour billions into gigafactories, charging networks and OEM innovation, but if there aren’t enough trained people to install and maintain those systems safely, the wheels of progress grind to a halt. The funding boost for new jobs will help to alleviate this, but will it happen fast enough to power the change that the industry needs now?
“And will the funding also go towards the training required to fill the new positions being created? Many technicians on the ground today are either unequipped or uncertified to deal with high-voltage EV systems.
“This isn’t just a skills gap, it’s a safety gap. It puts both technicians and the communities they serve at risk. We need a more concrete plan to bolster the future of this industry from the ground up with a strong foundation to scale upon. Our tools are in the hands of the people building the UK’s EV future and they tell us the same thing: training and safety must catch up, or the entire sector risks bottlenecking.
“The UK doesn’t just need more EVs; it needs a reliable and protected workforce behind them. Until we start treating technician training and safety investment with the same urgency as infrastructure and vehicle production, the EV transition won’t just be delayed, it will be dangerous.”
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