The vehicle, which made its debut at InterAirport this year, was developed by a consortium comprising Douglas Equipment (now owned by Textron); Hyperdrive Innovation (a UK-based developer and manufacturer of lithium-ion battery technology for electric vehicles and battery energy storage systems); and the University of Birmingham.
The project was awarded funding from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. It successfully entered a competition run by Innovate UK in 2015 called “World-leading, off-highway vehicles”. This competition was set up to boost the UK’s position in the growing global market of off-highway vehicles by supporting highly innovative projects which reduce emissions and improve efficiency.
