SPRINT POWER
www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com // July 2019 // 125
According to Frost, being a British startup company is not
easy. He says that although there are lots of government
incentives, “realistically it’s very challenging. What we
ultimately need is funding.
“People have the knowhow to start up
a company and they know how to engineer
products. But companies need cash and there
is no easy access to funds for start-ups in the
UK; it feels like the country has become very
risk averse.”
This is signifi cantly diff erent in places such
as Asia, he says. “That’s why I raised
investment overseas, because it’s easier to raise
funds out there.” But he is quick to also
acknowledge the usefulness of government
grants in the UK, which he says he can leverage
through job creation, and he calls R&D grants
“very useful because they can be used to
bolster engineering resources.”
One of the biggest challenges for many tech
companies is technical recruitment, but Frost
says he is in a privileged position. “I have a lot
of engineers fl ocking to work with me, while
others are struggling to recruit, which means
I can cherry pick the best engineers out there.
In addition, we work closely with universities
to make sure the new generation of engineers
are being trained in the right way to be useful
to electrify the vehicles of the future.”
The stresses on recruitment is partly there, he suggests,
because the demand for electrifi cation is ever-increasing.
“Automotive electrifi cation has been in the headlines for
a while now, to the point where it’s becoming mainstream.
Things like Formula E and the performance advantages
demonstrated by Tesla have helped to raise the profi le.” But
now he argues that “we’re in a revolution for electrifi cation
for all of mobility. It’s not just cars and race cars anymore,
but there’s a pull across other industries,
including aerospace, marine, and off -highway.”
Diverse applications
A major driver, says Frost, is legislation, which
in the marine sector, for example, is putting
restrictions on emissions and noise pollution.
And Frost is seeing lots of interest from
companies that manufacture off -highway
equipment – diggers and agricultural
equipment like tractors, for instance. Sprint
Power is “agnostic to application; instead, we
are experts in electrifi cation. We’ll do a battery
system and a driveline for a boat, a plane, a car,
a tractor, anything; we’ll electrify it.
“Our projects are diverse, from electric race
cars and submarines to autonomous vehicles
and trains. Over the past 10 years, my team and
I have delivered 150 electrifi cation projects. We
came into this game very early and now it’s
accelerating at a very rapid pace.”
Regardless of the application, Frost says the
technology is essentially the same. “What’s key
is repackaging the technology in the right way.”
Sprint Power is not tied to any specifi c
products, so the right choice can be made
based on customer requirements. “If
a company goes to a motor or battery
manufacturer, they will push for the use of
their own product. But that may not be the
ideal solution. We’ll speak to the customer and
analyze their requirements, do some
simulation, and then go back to them with
options. What we want to fi nd is the most
optimal, eff ective, cost-e cient solution for
those given applications.”
CUTTING THE CORD
Sprint Power has secured £2.4m
(US$3m) government funding to develop
and rollout wireless charging technology
across the UK. Part of a consortium
that will be given a total of £4.6m
(US$5.7m) to demonstrate the viability
of wireless charging for commercial
users, the technology will create a
retro-fit module that will provide existing
electric vehicles with wireless charging
capability.
Inductive charging has often been
described as the Holy Grail for electric
car ownership and adoption as it allows
vehicles to recharge their batteries
without the need to plug in. It also has
the ability to allow charging on the move
– so drivers can be continually topping
up as they travel, which could avoid the
big issue of range anxiety.
1. Batteries embedded in a Sprint Power
designed platform
2. Protecting battery packs is essential
3. Moving from designs to real-life
prototypes in the lab
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