Global Innovation Centre opened by ePropelled in Coventry

Above: (left to right) Mary Creagh CBE, MP for Coventry East and Taiwo Owatemi, MP for Coventry North West pictured with Simon Baugh, Director of Corporate Marketing ePropelled and Robert Towler, Mechanical Engineering Manager at ePropelled Global Innovation Centre, Coventry, UK.
Courtesy ePropelled

The facility will support allied requirements for long endurance UAVs, robotic ground vehicles and autonomous maritime platforms.

Nick Grewal, Founder, Chair and CEO, said: "The world has realised it cannot depend on a single region for critical propulsion. We are one of the very few companies building both propulsion and power generation for uncrewed vehicle platforms. To meet allied demand, we intend to exceed one million systems annually by 2027. Scale underpins affordability, resilience and sovereign supply chains."

Henry Sullivan, CFO, added: "Our engineering teams in Coventry are building propulsion and power systems designed specifically for mission endurance, survivability and system level integration across air, land and maritime domains. By concentrating research, innovation and testing here in the West Midlands, we are creating a globally recognised centre that accelerates technology development for allied defence programmes."

Mary Creagh MP for Coventry East, who attended the event, said: “ePropelled is another world class innovator in modern manufacturing who has found Coventry to be a brilliant city to make their home. Coventry’s deep engineering heritage has kept us at the heart of UK manufacturing for more than a century. 

Investment from companies like ePropelled creates more skilled jobs in the city and will further strengthen our industrial ecosystem, enabling the people of our city to future-proof their skills and experience in this rapidly developing sector.”

Simon Baugh, Director of Corporate Marketing, explained: "Defence customers need certainty, scale and interconnected supply chains that can be trusted across borders. By aligning Coventry with our global production sites and Europe wide compliance capabilities, we are delivering a fully integrated operations model that supports high volume manufacturing with the resilience required by our allied partners."

The centre advances high performance motors, hybrid starter generators and intelligent power management systems for endurance UAVs, robotic ground vehicles and autonomous maritime systems. ePropelled’s Sparrow and Falcon motor families cover lightweight through high power classes with systems up to 10kW, while the Hercules hybrid starter generators deliver up to 14kW for hybrid electric propulsion architectures.

Additionally, the UK is leading development of AI and connected solutions including ePConnect, an integrated on-board service manager and telemetry platform that enables real time data monitoring, control and analytics for UAV, UGV, USV applications.

A global propulsion and power systems company with strong UK engineering heritage and operations in India and the United States, serving defence and industrial customers worldwide, ePropelled continues to expand its hybrid capabilities through European partnerships, including the recently announced partnership with Germany’s Hirth Engines on lightweight heavy fuel hybrids and early-stage collaboration with other heavy fuel engine manufacturers across the UK and Europe.

NATO allies are likewise accelerating cooperation, with Britain and four E5 partners launching the LEAP initiative to develop low-cost autonomous drones and air defence technologies inspired by Ukraine’s battlefield innovation, supporting what UK officials describe as a pivotal moment for European security.

This scaling of allied requirements is reflected in independent forecasts for the sector. Global unmanned systems markets are projected to grow from about 26.6 billion dollars (approximately 19.7 billion pounds, 22.6 billion euros) in 2024 to roughly 48.3 billion dollars (approximately 35.7 billion pounds, 41.0 billion euros) by 2030, with the drone propulsion segment expected to reach approximately 11.3 billion dollars (about 8.4 billion pounds, 9.6 billion euros) by the end of the decade.