The funds form part of the £500m investment announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg earlier this year to promote ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) in the UK. This included £100m for industry-led research and development.

The £11m funding is being pledged to the Adapting cutting-edge technologies competition being run by Innovate UK, which was opened recently and invited industry to bid for a share of the funding available to deliver its aims. The additional funding from government takes the total available to up to £15m.

Transport Minister Baroness Kramer said: ‘This new £11m for research and development shows our support to UK companies leading the way to cleaner and greener transport technologies. They are investing in more efficient transport, and that is the best way to drive our economy forward.

‘By 2040 we expect virtually all new cars and vans to be using carbon-cutting technology and we want to see as much of this as possible designed and built here, in the UK, delivering economic as well as environmental benefits.

‘We are already a world leader in this field and we must invest more resources to maintain our edge.’

Details and key dates for the Innovate UK competition are available from the Innovate UK website.