GKN hybrid project lands major accolade

Considered to be among the most prestigious honours for British automotive engineering talent, the Dewar Trophy and Simms Medal are only awarded in years when the Royal Automobile Club's Dewar Technical Committee deems contenders to display enough merit.

And GKN's work in developing its new hybrid power system, which uses flywheel technology to store energy for use in accelerating in vehicles which regularly stop.

It has already been fitted in a number of London buses after a series of trials, and is also considered suitable for future fitting on trains and trucks.

The technology is fitted by engineers at the company's Telford plant in Hadley Park.

It received the Dewar Trophy, after a unanimous decision by the Royal Automobile Club's Dewar Technical Committee, chaired by John Wood MBE, while the Simms medal went to Formula One team Williams.

Gordon Day, general manager of GKN Hybrid Power, said: "It is a great honour to be recognised with such a prestigious award. Our work to drive forward development of our electric flywheel energy storage technology – from motor sport to mainstream transportation – is something of which we are particularly proud.

"The team at GKN Hybrid Power is committed to continued evolution of our core technology, and to meeting the challenges of delivering this innovative solution for reducing emissions and increasing fuel efficiency across transport industry networks."

Mr Wood added: "GKN's investment in affordable hybrid technology paves the way for the development of fuel saving vehicles in many new markets around the world.

"The Dewar Trophy, presented to GKN in recognition of this outstanding technical achievement, is a testament to the engineers who envisaged how a motor sport technology could have real advantages in the commercial world."

The first commercial application has been in buses across several UK cities, delivering fuel efficiencies of around 20 per cent, alongside reduced vehicle emissions.

The same technology could yet be used for a wide range of applications, with the energy storage flywheel at the heart of the technology converting energy lost as heat into recyclable rotational kinetic energy.