Current vehicle powertrains are typically designed for a lifetime of 150,000 miles. However, the connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) of the future will be heavily utilised in cities achieving that mileage in under a year. Therefore, there is a need to design ultra-durable powertrains to cater for this heavy-duty drive cycle.

The project, funded by Innovate UK and in collaboration with Romax Technology and EMPEL Systems, will research the benefits of these robust powertrains of the future by adopting a ‘cradle-to-grave’ approach, i.e. assessing the whole life cycle impacts of the vehicle from an economic and ecological perspective.

• Create data sets for lifecycle usage of future CAV fleets.
• Develop modelling methods for durability and life cycle impact of key powertrain components.
• Design an ultra-durable concept powertrain suitable for the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) usage archetype.