A report conducted by researchers at the Connected Places Catapult, Element Energy and Cambridge Econometric, has forecast that Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) will have a total market value of up to £41.7 billion in the UK by 2035 – proving Britain is a world-leader in CAV technology.
In fourteen years the report predicts that 40 per cent of new UK cars will have self-driving abilities, which means that Britain is getting closer to a future with mass CAV adoption.
Additionally, investment in this work could create around 40,000 jobs in the UK and contributes to the Primer Ministers’ vow to ‘Build Back Greener’.
Transport Minister, Rachel Maclean, who revealed this forecast stated that “investment in and development of CAVs could truly transform the way people and goods are transported, with innovation like this at the heart of our ambition to build back better.
“We’re on the cusp of a driving revolution. Not only could this tech unlock vast opportunities for the UK economy and jobs market, but it could also significantly improve the safety and efficiency of how we travel over the coming decades.”
Being a world-leader in CAV technology did not happen overnight and the Government has worked since 2015 to make the UK one of the best places in the world to develop and deploy CAV technology.
The Government has granted £200 million of funding already for CAV Research and Development (R&D), which has enabled British start-up businesses to develop their tech for domestic and international use.
From the help of the Government-provided R&D support, a few businesses have successfully raised tens of millions of pounds in private investment, competing globally with some of the world’s largest self-driving vehicle organisations.
Alongside the dedicated funding offered by the Government for CAV development, many start-ups, scale-ups and established businesses investing in this technology have been able to use the R&D tax credit system, which offers either relief against Corporation Tax or a direct cash credit.
How Kapitalise can help
Despite a growing uptake of R&D tax relief, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has previously revealed that around 80 per cent of eligible companies either did not claim or under-claimed R&D tax credits in 2020.
At Kapitalise, we specialise in securing R&D tax credits for your business innovation, and we have saved our clients almost £40 million since we were founded in 2017.
To find out if your business or project can take advantage of R&D tax credits or relief, contact our expert team at Kapitalise today.