Author: Kara McCullough

TWO companies within the JANS Group, ETRUX and JANS Composites, are sponsoring the Queen’s University Formula Racing (QFR) team as they compete in the Institute of Mechanical Engineers’ Formula Student event at Silverstone, which is being held this weekend.

Formula Student is Europe’s most established engineering competition and this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. The competition aims to develop enterprising and innovative young engineers and encourage more young people to take up a career in engineering.

Both companies, ETRUX and JANS Composites, have utilised the engineering expertise and knowledge to produce tooling for composite components to ensure that the build was made of as lightweight construction as possible. And as part of the partnership, ETRUX has provided team support vehicles to transport the team and their battery powered single-seater racing car to the event.

Dr Geoff Cunningham, QFR’s team principal said; “QFR was excited to collaborate with JANS Composites on the design and manufacture of the bodywork for the 2023 car. The team at JANS has a strong background in composite manufacture for the automotive sector and have been well placed to take the QFR bodywork to the highest level. We would like to thank Gareth, Ciaran and the wider team at JANS Composites for their enthusiastic support.”

“We were also very pleased that their sister company, ETRUX, assisted on preparations for the Formula Student 2023 competition. ETRUX has extensive experience in coachbuilding light-duty commercial and leisure vehicles and has a growing footprint in the development of electric variants. So, there were many areas of common interest. The organisation has a thriving vehicle hire business and has kindly supplied QFR with commercial vehicles for the long drive to the Silverstone Circuit. We would like to thank Gareth and the team at ETRUX for their immense support.”

QFR is a student-led team that designs, builds and races a single-seater car in the Formula Student competition. The team consists of engineering students from Queen’s University Belfast, who apply their skills and knowledge to create innovative solutions for the challenges of motorsport. The team aims to achieve excellence in engineering, teamwork and leadership, while promoting STEM education and inspiring future generations of engineers.

Some of the ETRUX engineers have competed in Formula Student during their studies and recognise the fantastic opportunity it gives budding automotive engineers ahead of their careers in industry.

Gareth Pinkerton, Head of Engineering at ETRUX and JANS Composites said: “As a former member of the QFR team, I recognise how valuable this competition is in starting the career of many young engineers. It is also a fantastic networking opportunity with a global range of students, universities, companies and technologies.

“I acknowledge that the technology and engineering within these cars has significantly moved on since I competed in 2001, with full electric powertrains now being developed. This fits perfectly with the ETRUX brand. From what we have seen of the QFR car this year, I have no doubt it will be a great success and we are very proud to have played our part in helping the team and the next generation of engineers.”

QFR was founded in 1999 by Dr Geoff Cunningham to provide high quality experience relevant to the automotive and motorsports sectors. Since then, QFR has produced 16 cars and won several awards at the annual competition for design and performance on the track.

While all cars up to 2019 were based around a 600cc motorcycle engine, all subsequent designs have been based on a fully electric powertrain. The team has finalised their new car for the July 2023 competition at Silverstone Race Circuit where they are targeting a top 10 finish from the 100+ international teams that have entered.

There are over 840,000 fully electric vehicles on the roads in the UK, and around a third of the drivers say that they have experienced range anxiety. So, what is range anxiety and what is being done or what can be done to eliminate it?

Range anxiety is that feeling of dread when EV drivers consider driving long distances. It’s the fear of running out of power whilst driving and ending up stranded by the side of the road with no access to a charging point.

What Causes Range Anxiety?

There are two main factors that cause range anxiety, the first one is the public’s perception that there is a lack of public charging points available. Not all EV users are fortunate enough to have charging points at home or at the workplace and therefore they rely heavily on the public charging infrastructure.

Secondly, there is a lack of fast charging points which are accessible to the public. This was highlighted as a major problem last Christmas when charging points on the motorways were overwhelmed and there were queues of Tesla cars as families tried to travel across the width and breadth of GB to visit relatives.

So, what is the UK Government doing to improve the EV infrastructure?

As stated earlier, there is a misconception that public EV charging points are very few and far between. There are more than 61,000 public charge points across the UK at over 22,000 locations and that’s more charging points than there are fuel stations but is it enough?

Given that the UK government has made a commitment to cease the production of petrol and diesel cars by 2030, it recognises that it must invest heavily in the EV charging infrastructure to gain public support, ease concerns and most importantly meet carbon zero targets.

To date £1.6BN has been invested to help expand the UK charging network. £950M of this will go towards the rapid charging fund which will see improvements across motorways and major roads over the next six months. This includes plans to implement at least six rapid charge points at every motorway service station across England by the end of 2023. And a further £20M is being invested to providing 1,000 new electric vehicle charge points in areas across the country where infrastructure is lacking the most.

This substantial investment by the UK government will have a massive positive impact on the UK’s efforts to meet their net zero targets and the advancements in the EV charging framework alone will see the transition from carbon to zero emissions become more obtainable and realistic.

The transition simplified

With more resources available for the public to avail of, drivers will feel much more confident about switching from fuel to electric vehicles and range anxiety will be no longer a common term.

However, for transport managers, who are under immense pressure to meet their company’s ESG strategies, transitioning their entire commercial fleets to zero emissions may be a somewhat daunting and overwhelming concept.

At ETRUX, we understand that fleet managers are facing many challenges which include the uncertainties around the capabilities of electric vehicles, along with productivity and efficiency posing a major factor.

That’s why at ETRUX, we have developed our ground-breaking EVolve programme to help simplify the transition to net zero fleets.

Not only does the EVolve programme help you with the initial change of your fleet, but our four-phase model ensures your organisation has professional guidance throughout the entire process. The four phases include a fleet feasibility study that will provide a road map for your organisation, where we help you source the right vehicles and charging solutions to suit your organisation’s needs. We also help to maintain your vehicles and manage fleet end of life disposal.

Thinking and planning ahead is essential in today’s marketplace so to find out more about our EVolve programme email info@etrux.co.uk.

etrux.co.uk

Congratulations to our ETRUX team members, Gareth Pinkerton and Philip Hanna, who recently graduated from the Advanced Manufacturing Leadership programme at Queen’s University Belfast.

Sponsored by the Department for the Economy (DfE), with support from the QUB Bright Minds initiative and Centre for Competitiveness, the five-month programme is designed to develop practical and effective management and leadership skills for manufacturing supervisors, helping them to lead with confidence, improve manufacturing operations and develop innovation.

We look forward to seeing the benefits of Gareth and Phillip’s participation in the programme across ETRUX.

Pictured left to right are: David Paulson, Professor of Practice at Queens Management School; Philip Hanna, ETRUX Team Lead; Edel Healy, Head of Team Support at JANS Group; Gareth Pinkerton, ETRUX Lead Engineer; Gerry Galvin, ETRUX Managing Director; William (W.) Ussher, Senior Executive at Centre For Competitiveness.

On the 19th May we joined EV charging point specialists, EV Civils Solutions, at the Fully Charged Show in Harrogate.

Founded by Robert Llewellyn, the Fully Charged Live show is one of the highlights of the calendar and we were delighted to be at this year’s first ever show in the north, exhibiting in the Commercial Zone.

On display we had the ETRUX all-electric Ford E-Transit welfare van. Based on the L3H2 leader model, it is one of safest and most robust welfare vans on the market. With a range of 196 miles on a single charge, it’s available in both the 3.5 and 4.25t models and can accommodate up to seven people offering an effective mobile solution for a wide range of applications, that includes road maintenance teams, film crews and even search and rescue services.

Over the day we spoke to many company fleet managers from across a variety of sectors offering our expert advice about light weight commercial EV’s and on how to transition to net zero fleets.

From the 10 – 11 May the ETRUX team were exhibiting at this year’s ITT Hub show at Farnborough International Exhibition Centre.

Attracting over 4000 visitors over two days, this year’s show included some of the most influential and knowledgeable professionals in the transport sector, all working together to help reshape the transport and logistics landscape.

Sharing our stand with our technical partners WATT Electric Vehicle Company (WEVC) and MAGTEC. We were showcasing the recently revealed Watt eCV1 light electric vehicle prototype, the L3H2 leader Ford E-transit welfare van, alongside one of the UK’s leading designers and manufacturers of electric drive systems, MAGTEC, together demonstrating the MEV75 7.5T EV Truck.

There is no doubt that the UK is home to class leading transport innovation and we are delighted to be a part of it as we help companies drive towards a more sustainable future.

https://itthub.co.uk