Market research and business consulting company Frost and Sullivan have recently presented their Entrepreneurial Company of the Year award to green automotive company EVO Electric Ltd."EVO Electric's effort to bring axial flux technology motors from a lab to the market highlights the company's entrepreneurial spirit," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Bharath Kumar Srinivasan. "By developing a large network of partners in industry and in the financial community, EVO Electric has succeeded in commercialising its unique technology and pioneering the use of large axial flux machines in the automotive industry."
EVO is a spin-out from Imperial College London. Espacenet and the UKIPO online journal suggest several published and unpublished PCT patent applications filed initially by Imperial and latterly by EVO itself. However, no mention of these patent applications is made in the press release, which instead highlights innovation in business processes aimed at increasing the value of the product and company:“Engineers are involved in any brain-storming session to put forward ideas and improvements on existing products” it notes. “Based on the ease of implementation and resource requirements, the best ideas resulting from the session are short-listed and implemented either immediately or after strategic analysis. This process adds value to the product at no additional cost to the customer or EVO Electric, while keeping the employees motivated and highly involved.”
Other success factors identified by Frost and Sullivan include:
- The higher power/torque density of EVO Electric's motor/generator, which enables a customer to reduce the overall weight for a given power rating, thereby increasing the efficiency and/or range;
- Focus on technology applications with near-term potential, such as commercial vehicles (taxis, delivery vans, buses, trucks) and military power generators;
- The higher power/torque density of EVO Electric's motor/generator, which enables a customer to reduce the overall weight for a given power rating, thereby increasing the efficiency and/or range;
- Focus on technology applications with near-term potential, such as commercial vehicles (taxis, delivery vans, buses, trucks) and military power generators;
- Focus on planned areas, for example R&D and business development, so that the various tasks do not spread its financial and human resources too thinly;
- Partnerships with Tier 1 automotive suppliers to improve market presence and enable the technology from EVO Electric to be manufactured based on the expertise of Tier 1 suppliers;
- Targeting niche markets that are relatively cost insensitive.
