DK ENGINEERING PARTNERS WITH GLOUCESTERSHIRE’S MCMURTRY AUTOMOTIVE

McMurtry Automotive has appointed DK Engineering to act as its exclusive agent in the UK.

The company, which only launched in 2016, invents, engineers and develops electric vehicles. It was founded by Sir David McMurtry, founder and chairman of South Gloucestershire-based global manufacturing company, Renishaw.

Thomas Yates, McMurtry Automotive’s managing director, was headhunted from Formula One. The brief for a powerful concept car was drawn up, with a consistent focus on compact.

McMurtry is now working to develop the next generation of automotive innovation.

The team wants to raise the bar for electric vehicles, inventing and proving new technologies to o er cars with unrivalled performance in dynamics, speed and range.

The business made international headlines last summer at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, when its Spéirling prototype stormed the Hillclimb leaderboard. The team set a blistering time of 39.08 seconds, comprehensively beating the previous o cial and uno cial records in the process.

James Cottingham from DK Engineering explained: “At our core, DK is an engineering company and it is amazing to see what McMurtry is achieving.

“I love what the team is doing, using electricity, but taking a di erent approach, rather than simply following the crowd.

“There is a huge respect for the work they have already carried out and the performance being achieved with the Spéirling, approaching that of Formula 1 around circuits, using electricity.

“The team is taking the technology to the next level and we are proud to be a part of this journey with the future projects, as the exclusive agent for the UK, and to support McMurtry as a revolutionary British business.”

Thomas Yates, Managing Director at McMurtry Automotive added: “Now we have proven that our downforce on demand technology works and have a world-beating track car, this is the next logical step, launching the Spéirling on to the market.”

Actuation Lab secures

financial backing from hardware and climate-tech investors

The Bristol developer of industrial hardware, Actuation Lab, has secured financial backing from hard-tech and climate-tech investors to develop hardware that will prevent catastrophic gas leakage and allow the safe and sustainable use of hydrogen as an energy source.

The company was founded by three postdoctoral researchers from the University of Bristol in 2019.

They are developing the Dragonfly Valve, a proprietary, low-torque, origami-inspired valve with zero leak paths to atmosphere, which will help enable the safe and sustainable transition to hydrogen use, and billions of tonnes of associated carbon savings.

Its plans to bring its products to market have been financially backed by hardware investors Kero Development Partners and deep-tech climate investor Zero Carbon Capital.

The investment comes at the end of a successful year for Actuation Lab, which has been awarded more than £1 million in publicly funded projects.

Zac Hall, MD at Kero said: “Actuation Lab’s products have the potential to make a hugely significant contribution to the UK’s Net Zero targets and we look forward to contributing to the next phase of the company’s growth.”

Pippa Gawley from ZCC said: “These innovations are critical to prevent fugitive emissions from the transmission and storage of hydrogen, as it is an indirect greenhouse gas.”

Co-founder and CEO at Actuation Lab, Dr Simon Bates, said: “I’m very proud of the team we have at Actuation Lab. As well as working towards our goals with a real passion, we have a very honest and supportive group of people here.

“I feel we have also found these qualities in our new investors, and I think this is key to giving us the best chance at growing Actuation Lab into one of the foremost hardware companies in the country.”