Cenex-LCV 2022 Review

Cenex-LCV 2022 Review Cenex-LCV is the UK’s premier low carbon vehicle event, held at UTAC in Bedfordshire, UK (7-8 September 2022). Our Matthew Swallow, our Technical Product Manager reviews the 2022 event. Promoting a Low Carbon Vehicle Future “The Low Carbon Vehicle Exhibition of 2022 perfectly lived up to its name. This year there were vehicles using every form of propulsion except an Internal Combustion Engine, from medical vehicles to waste collection and all sorts of personal transport from rickshaws to superbikes. With vehicles using electric drives, there was a very real possibility that they would be using a permanent magnet to drive the rotating element within that motor. However a permanent magnet is not the only “game in town” when it comes to electric motors and many different propulsion technologies were on show. Perhaps one reason not to consider Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB) magnets is their relatively difficult extraction from the ground. With this in mind, at this year’s event we launched our own commitment to improving the environmental impact of magnets in the form of Carbon Neutral Sintered NdFeB, now available from the Bunting-e-Magnets website. Whilst this is not a reduction of carbon in the production process (this is outside of our control), it is a first step in recognising we can contribute to reducing the impact of sintered NdFeB. One interesting conversation revolved around the different between net zero and carbon neutral. Conversations do not always have to lead to agreement and it was a spirited debate on the fundamental difference between paying someone to take carbon out of the air with cheap geothermal energy and paying to support a project that took methane out of the air at a waste treatment plant. In my opinion, whatever activity you undertake to re-address the balance of your engineering activity is a positive step forward. In the 2021 event, we had some incredible enquiries and it is great to see that 10 months later we did secure an order for £20k and a follow-on enquiry for further development. This year we took a direct enquiry for 10 e-bike motor systems and have already started the quote process, with several promising discussions around our core post-assembly magnetising technology that will require significant engineering effort in the coming months. Cenex LCV always has a special place in the exhibition calendar for me. The event can be amazing or a little slow, but it is, by far, the most personally rewarding of any exhibition I am involved in. We [Bunting] will be back next year, but with a significantly different sort of stand that hopes to bring our solutions to customer’s minds more readily.“

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