Xtrac has considerable experience of designing transmissions for high performance hybrid and electric road vehicles, and has been involved since the inception of low carbon vehicle technologies, having presented its technology to policy makers with a special display at the House of Lords as long ago as 2008 in response to the growing interest in EVs. Since then the company has produced hundreds of innovative high-performance transmissions for technology evaluation in all manner of innovative low carbon powertrain configurations and for low volume production.

There have been numerous milestones, including the REEVolution project, a collaborative research and development programme funded by the Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK) in 2011; designed to create new high-performance range extended electric vehicles (REEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Jaguar Land Rover led this consortium, which included vehicle manufacturers Lotus and, through its Infiniti brand, Nissan, with Xtrac supplying its P1092 torque vectoring transmission.

Xtrac says the continual development of its driveline systems for a rapidly expanding market of supercars and hypercars, will provide additional valuable insights into how highly efficient transmissions can be designed for mass market road-going EVs.

“Important lessons can be learnt when designing, testing and validating technology for extreme applications,” says James Setter, head of the most rapidly growing part of Xtrac – its Automotive and Engineering business unit, whose focus on road vehicles complements the company’s world-beating motorsport activities.

“There is significant intellectual property to be gleaned from these advanced automotive technology development programmes; not least being the pursuit of silent drivetrains, where we’re focusing significant effort. When you remove the internal combustion engine it reveals the slightest transmission noise, vibration and harshness. Road vehicles demand a high level of NVH refinement that is simply not required in motorsport, so we tailor the design of our high-end transmissions for these vehicles accordingly.”

The P1166 transmission, fully integrated with YASA P400 motor-generator, meets the tight packaging and lightweight requirements for the front axle of Williams’ innovative modular lightweight electric car chassis. It’s complemented at the rear by Xtrac’s P1227 transmission with torque vectoring capability, which made its debut in 2016, and which has already been selected by customers for high performance EV applications.