Project Summary

Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) account for 80% of domestic freight movement in the UK and contribute to 20% of land transport emissions, yet the electrification of HGVs (eHGVs) remains slow due to high costs, limited range and reduced payload caused by increased vehicle weight. Battery innovation has dominated electrification efforts, however electric motors – the second heaviest and most expensive component – have often been overlooked. Typical eHGV motors weigh500kg each and eHGVs require between two and four motors;using costly, carbon-intensive rare-earth magnets. This project will deliver the Coolshaft-HD proof of concept, a proprietary sealed rotor cooling system that enables significant motor downsizing by improving thermal management, reducing the motor size, weight and cost by 40%, with further benefits of increased eHGV range and reduced rare earth magnet dependence by 40%.? The project will produce a prototype-ready design for further testing with Tier 1 manufacturers to accelerate adoption and scalability.

Project Achievements

The project demonstrated that improving motor thermal management can unlock significant benefits for electric freight. By enabling smaller and lighter motors, the approach helps reduce the vehicle cost, increased payload capacity, and improve efficiency. Reducing reliance on rare-earth materials also lowers embodied emissions and improves supply-chain resilience. At a system level, these improvements make eHGVs more commercially viable, particularly for small and medium-sized fleet operators. In the longer term, widespread adoption of such technologies could contribute meaningfully to reducing freight-related emissions while strengthening the UK’s position in advanced electric powertrain innovation.

Conclusions

This project delivers significant environmental and economic benefits by reducing both the embodied emissions and capital cost of eHGVs. Each kilogram of neodymium magnet emits approximately 24 kg CO₂e during production. By enabling a 40% reduction in motor size and magnet usage, Coolshaft-HD reduces the embodied emissions of each motor by around 40%, with compounded benefits as each eHGV typically uses two to four motors. The same reduction also translates directly into lower costs, reducing vehicle price by approximately £16,000 per eHGV, improving affordability for fleet operators, particularly SMEs. Weight reduction provides further environmental benefit. A 40% reduction in motor weight delivers up to 800 kg of additional payload, equivalent to a 10% payload increase, reducing emissions per tonne-mile of freight moved by a further ~10%.

Next Steps

The immediate next steps following this project are to progress Coolshaft-HD from TRL3 to TRL4 through physical prototyping and controlled testing with Tier-1 motor manufacturers. This will involve manufacturing prototypes, integrating them into representative eHGV motors, and validating thermal, mechanical, and durability performance under real operating conditions. Further research and testing are required to confirm long-term reliability, seal integrity under sustained high torque and speed, and performance across duty cycles typical of freight applications. Collaboration with the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) as well as major global sub-contractors will continue to refine manufacturability, tolerancing, and cost optimisation. Additional collaboration with Tier-1 partners and selected test facilities will support system-level validation.