Retro-fit hybrid systems specialist Ashwoods Automotive has been honoured with three awards from the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) at its annual Innovations awards ceremony, which was held earlier this week.
The firm’s Hybrid Drive System won awards in the Power / Energy, Sustainability and Transport categories. Designed to be fitted to commercial vehicles, the system reduces emissions and increases fuel efficiency, meaning companies can benefit from as much as a 15 per cent decrease in fuel costs.
The system works by recovering wasted energy from braking and decelerating and storing it to be used to assist vehicles when required. Designed as an alternative over low range, high cost electric vehicles, the Ashwoods Hybrid Drive System is fully commercialised and used by over 35 companies including Royal Mail, BT, TFL and NHS.
The Exeter based firm now has a network of nationwide dealers who can install, maintain and service the system, making it even easier for fleets to cut their carbon emissions. Vehicles currently using the system are estimated to save a staggering 356 tonnes of carbon per year.
The IET Innovation Awards recognise the most creative companies operating within a wide variety of engineering and technology disciplines, with 15 categories including asset management, telecommunications and product design.
Upon receiving the award, Martin Kadhim, Business Development, Ashwoods Automotive said, “To even have been nominated in categories with some of these fantastic companies is a real honour. We’ve tirelessly developed our technologies for commercial purposes, not just for innovation’s sake, we’ve taken this product from innovation to commercialisation and it’s great to be recognised in this way.”
The awards ceremony was hosted actor and presenter, Robert Llewellyn. Other notable winners included GE Digital Energy which won the Built Environment award for its smart-grid technologies and QinetiQ Ltd which won the Emerging Technologies award for the Zephyr solar-electric unmanned aerial system.
