Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Axon has decided to apply this knowledge to the manufacture of lightweight cars and will spend the next two to three years on pre-production work for its debut car, an environmentally friendly hatchback.

Dr Steven Cousins, managing director of Axon Automotive and the technology’s principal developer, said: “Axon aims to be the most fuel efficient car manufacturer in Europe and much of how we will do this comes from using our specialist carbon fibre technology.”

Raw Axon is manufactured from a flexible carbon fibre braid surrounding a foam core. Lengths are laid into a tool using Axon’s patented automated process, the tool is then closed and sealed and resin is drawn into the tool under negative pressure.

The vacuum also causes the foam core to expand, forcing the carbon braid to fill the mould cavity. The result following curing is a ready-to-use material which is as strong as steel, but 60 per cent lighter. This alone has the potential to produce savings in fuel costs of up to 20 per cent.

The tooling is made from low cost materials that are easy to machine so the time taken from design to production is typically reduced to a few days, which enables multiple design iterations to be tried and tested quickly and economically.

Axon will use the Sexy Green Car show at the Eden Project in Cornwall in April to provide a taste of what’s to come when it showcases Axon Eco-M edition, a car based on a Caterham 7 Classic that uses a standard 1.4 litre petrol engine.

The car was developed by following Axon’s success with a Caterham 7 in the 2005 and 2006 Shell Eco-marathons. In the 2006 event, Axon’s entry was the only one to be based on a road-going vehicle, and achieved 131mpg.

As well as the recycled carbon fibre – also an innovative new process, though this time from Milled Carbon – Axon Eco-M does away with the roof, windscreen and more besides.

“Now that we can also recycle this material, as is being showcased on the Eco-M, carbon fibre will be able fully deliver its green potential for us,” said Dr Cousins.

Originally based at the Cranfield University Business Incubator Centre, Axon moved to Wollaston following an injection of government finance last October.

Work on Axon has been principally backed by UK Government funding of some £4m. The company is looking to invest £2-3m over the next two years and will turn to VC funding of about £5.5m to take it through the entire pre-production process.

Axon’s unique technology will be coupled with a unique marketing strategy, which will see the cars’ components shipped out around the company for assembly at its future dealers, opening the possibility to home assembly.

Though Axon is seeking investors to leverage its new vehicle opportunity, because it is a general structural technology with potential for a huge number of diverse applications, it is also open to funding opportunities from entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators who want to use Axon in their specialist field.

Axontex holds European patent rights and has applied for patents in a number of other countries including the US, Japan and India, and is keenly poised to exploit these markets.