Birmingham C.A.S.E. Automotive Research and Education Centre holds the fourth automotive webinar at the University of Birmingham

The Birmingham C.A.S.E. Automotive Research and Education Centre successfully held its 4th Automotive Webinar – Industry Forum at the University of Birmingham on September 27th, 2022. The event has received good attention from academia and industry. Dr Yu Duan, fuel cell specialist at Changan UK and Tom Witcomb, chief engineering at Lotus group delivered technical talks based on their experience in the industry. Attendees had an in-depth communication and discussion about the topics presented. The webinar was chaired by Professor Hongming Xu, Director of the C.A.S.E. Centre for Automotive Research and Education in Birmingham, and was streamed live online by Gasgoo, with over 27,000 viewers following the event online.

At the beginning of the meeting, Prof. Xu firstly delivered his greetings and a warm welcome to the guests who participated in this online webinar. He also introduced the centre and expertise of the colleagues in the Centre.

Dr Yu Duan gave a fascinating talk on the topic of “Overview of Fuel Cell Vehicle and Its System-related Control Development”. Dr Duan reviewed the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and addressed the key concerns regarding the technology development. He pointed out that the main challenge in fuel cell development is incorporating knowledge of multi-disciplinaries in engineering design. Dr Duan's presentation also provided an in-depth discussion on fuel cell system-related control technology. 

The next talk was given by Tom Witcomb, Chief engineer, Group Lotus. He discussed the topic of "The electrified future of sports car powertrains". He introduced the development process of the electrified sports car and spoke about the challenges of sports cars' attributes in zero emissions. He gave a comparison of zero tailpipe technology and an in-depth presentation on the battery electric vehicle sports car concept.

Following the keynote speech, the online audience from all walks of life proactively asked questions and interacted with the speakers from the perspective of the market, R&D, and customer demands.