Winners revealed at the LowCVP Champions awards

The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) announced the 2017 Low Carbon Champions at its “green transport” networking event last night, 12 October.

Held in association with Energy 2017 at the NEC, Birmingham, over 240 guests attended the celebration dinner to celebrate the achievements and innovation of organisations and individuals who are leading the UK towards low emission road transport.

The event was hosted by TV personality, science communicator and Formula E presenter, Nicki Shields and The Champions Awards judging panel was comprised of 25 senior executives from across a range of UK organisations with a stake in the low carbon road transport agenda.

Transport for London, BYD (bus manufacturer) and Go-Ahead London (operator) jointly won the ‘Grand Prix’ - or winner-of-winners - award for their effective partnership in delivering the vehicles, operational capacity and infrastructure to begin running London’s first two all-electric bus routes (507 and 521).

Waterloo bus garage has been remodelled to accommodate over 50 electric buses and new charging infrastructure in a space-constrained environment. Working with infrastructure supplier, SSE, the partnership has overcome technical challenges to transform the garage into a large-scale, fully-electric operation.

The London EV Company - formerly known as the London Taxi Company - scooped the Low Carbon Car/Van Manufacturer of the Year prize. The judges said that LEVC has shown leadership and innovation in bringing to market the UK’s first purpose-built electric taxi.

David Martell, founder and chief executive of Chargemaster, is the LowCVP’s 2017 winner of the award for Outstanding Individual in Promoting Low Carbon Transport.

Roads minister Jesse Norman MP said: “The UK boasts a dynamic, innovative automotive sector and British companies are leading the way in developing low emission technologies for road transport.

“Congratulations to the winners of the Low Carbon Champions Awards. These important achievements highlight the progress being made as we strive to meet our ambition for every new car and van to be zero emission by 2040.”

The LowCVP managing director Andy Eastlake, also commented: “All the entries that were short-listed for this year’s Awards deserve praise for their contribution to cutting road transport carbon emissions and helping to reduce air pollution.

“Against the backdrop of a year of political and environmental turmoil it’s perhaps appropriate that our overall winning entry required a strong collaborative approach to radically reduce the impact of a whole bus fleet.”

For a full list of winners, see the read more link.