Ultra-light Gordon Murray platform wins £11m government funding

The government has awarded the Gordon Murray Group (GMG) a share of an £88 million innovation fund to aid development of an 'ultra-lightweight' vehicle platform. 

The Windlesham-based firm – named after its founder, Formula 1 engineering legend Gordon Murray – is one of 46 UK companies to land a portion of the fund through the government-backed Advanced Propulsion Centre's Collaborative R&D competition.

GMG will share around a quarter of the total pot (£22.5m, including an £11m government grant) with Surrey-based Protean Electric, a developer of in-wheel motors for electric vehicles. 

GMG will use the funding to support the development of a new "ultra-lightweight vehicle platform for future vehicles", dubbed M-Lighten, which Autocar understands will not be exclusively for electric vehicles.