• EU votes for hefty tariffs on Chinese EV imports

    EU countries have voted in favour of imposing up to 45% on China-made electric vehicles (EVs) for five years. Just over a year ago, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission (EC), announced that Brussels was to investigate the imposing of import duties on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) coming from China to the EU. Von der Leyen said the decision to do so was due to “growing evidence-based concerns about the recent and rapid rise in low-priced exports of EVs from China”. In July 2024, the EC announced that following the investigation it had concluded that the booming Chinese sector benefits from “unfair subsidisation” by Beijing which is causing a “threat of economic injury to EU BEV producers”. The EC proposed a provisional measure that included anti-subsidy tariffs…

  • UK’s £22bn bet on carbon capture will ‘lock the nation into fossil fuel dependence for decades’

    Scientists and environmental campaigners have criticised the government’s investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, saying the technology is unproven and will only extend our reliance on fossil fuels. On Friday (4 October), the UK government announced it would invest nearly £22bn in CCS projects over the next 25 years. CCS technology concentrates carbon emissions before they reach the atmosphere and stores them beneath the seabed. It is seen as a way to rapidly tackle existing carbon-intensive industrial sectors. While it may sound like a viable solution to simply bury carbon emissions underground, the technology does have strong opposition, especially from many scientists and environmental campaigners. Writing in The Conversation, Mark Maslin, professor of natural sciences…

  • Teardown: Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11

    New Microsoft models harness Snapdragon X power to quash repairability and speed issues, but do they represent a generational leap forward? In 2020, Apple left the laptop market reeling with the release of its M1 MacBook Air, which finally saw the firm begin its transition to ARM-powered CPUs replacing Intel and its x86 architecture. ARM CPUs had long been used for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets due to their superior battery life, but had not been considered powerful enough to run laptops. With the release of the M1 chip in 2020, Apple showed that ARM could be utilised very effectively to run a fully-fledged desktop while maintaining its battery life and portability benefits. The Surface Pro 11 battery is relatively easy to remove Qualcomm, the manufacturer behind the…

  • BAE Systems launches latest Royal Navy attack submarine from its shipbuilding base in Cumbria

    Agamemnon, named after the ancient Greek king, is the sixth of seven Astute Class submarines to emerge from BAE’s shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. The nuclear-powered craft weighs 7,400 tonnes and is 97 metres long. Having entered the water for the first time, Agamemnon will now begin the next phase of its test and commissioning programme before leaving Barrow for sea trials with the Royal Navy. The Astute Class boats are the largest and most advanced attack submarines ever built for the Royal Navy. Equipped with state-of-the-art nuclear technology, they never need to be refuelled. As they manufacture their own oxygen and drinking water for 98 crew members, they are also able to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing. Steve Timms, managing director of BAE Systems Submarines…

  • Emergency distress signal system to ensure astronaut safety on the Moon

    Scientists are designing a communication system for the Moon that will allow future astronauts to send emergency distress signals and geolocate their positions. The project, which is led by the University of South Australia (UniSA), proposes building a satellite constellation based on the COSPAS-SARSAT technology already used for search and rescue on Earth, but adapted for lunar conditions. With its Artemis program, Nasa is aiming to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon. This could leave astronauts exposed to high-risk situations in remote areas such as the lunar south pole. Dr Mark Rice, a UniSA researcher, says the distress system could allow continuous communication with astronauts for up to 10 hours, even in the most challenging terrain, such as craters or mountains. …

  • UK EV market not growing fast enough to meet government-mandated targets

    Automotive trade association the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and major car makers are calling on the government to introduce electric vehicle (EV) subsidies to stimulate demand. UK electric car sales hit a record high in September, according to the latest figures from the trade association, which represents the UK’s automotive industry. Over 56,300 EVs were sold during the month – the highest on record – achieving a 20.5% share of overall car sales. This is up from 16.6% a year ago. The fleet sector drove much of this growth, making up 75.9% of EV registrations. While private EV demand rose by 3.6%, SMMT says it is not rising fast enough to meet the government’s zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Under the ZEV mandate, which aims to phase out new petrol and…

  • Can we cut the Earth in half like a watermelon?

    Why dividing Earth into two separate hemispheres is even harder than one might assume . Dear Evil Engineer, We hope you are able to receive this message, which we are transmitting from a communications outpost located a few light-years from Earth. Our observations suggest that your planet remains unaware of the ongoing scramble for the planets of the Orion Arm between ourselves and our rival empires. Territorial claims have largely been settled with limited planetary destruction – however, the planet Earth, with its rich resources of water, oxygen and coffee beans, remains subject to competing claims. We have therefore signed a treaty agreeing to the partition of Earth between ourselves and those cretins from Scutum-Centaurus. We will decide afterwards who will take the northern hemisphere…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • UK to invest £22bn in broad roll-out of carbon capture and storage

    The government will invest nearly £22bn in carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects as it looks to curtail the UK’s carbon emissions. According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the projects will create “thousands of jobs” while attracting around £8bn in private investment. CCS technology concentrates carbon emissions before it reaches the atmosphere and stores it beneath the seabed. The full £21.7bn investment will be made available in stages over the next 25 years as the UK looks to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Initial investment will be focused on two “carbon capture clusters” in Teesside and Merseyside, while the announcement also sees funding allocated to build the UK’s first large-scale hydrogen production plant. Prime Minister Keir Starmer…

  • Toyota to delay production of first US-made EV to 2026

    Toyota is pushing back the start date for electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing at its Kentucky-based assembly plant in the US to 2026. The Japanese carmaker initially targeted late 2025 to begin output of its first EV model at the Kentucky plant. However, Japan’s The Nikkei newspaper has reported that this date is now being pushed back to 2026. Earlier this year, Toyota had announced it was investing $1.3bn in the Kentucky factory to build a three-row electric sport utility vehicle (SUV). According to the Nikkei article, along with this delay Toyota has also cancelled plans to produce a Lexus brand SUV in North America by 2030, opting to ship completed vehicles to the US from Japan instead. However, it still expects the North American EV market to grow over the long term and plans to…

  • Rail manufacturing plant opens in Goole to build Piccadilly Line trains

    Transport secretary Louise Haigh will be at the inauguration ceremony for the new £200m Siemens plant that will support 700 high-skilled jobs. Siemens’ Rail Village will be responsible for manufacturing and assembling almost 100 new Piccadilly Line trains. The new facility complements Siemens’ existing operations, comprising some 450 trains in service and eight purpose-built maintenance facilities, plus wider activities in electrification, signalling and train control technologies. The rail village is Siemens’ second investment in East Yorkshire, following a £300m wind turbine blade plant that was opened in 2016 in Hull. Haigh said she wanted to end the ‘boom and bust’ approach to rail manufacturing by delivering a long-term industrial strategy for rolling stock. “This impressive, world…

  • UK faces infrastructure spending shortfall of £700bn by 2040, says report

    The UK is heading towards an infrastructure spending shortfall of £700bn by 2040, with £1.6tn of projects currently unfunded, according to a report by EY-Parthenon, EY’s global strategy consulting arm. The report – Mind the (investment) gap: funding and delivering capital projects amidst fiscal constraints – attributes the funding shortfall to a combination of economic headwinds. It finds that persistently high levels of inflation, rising cost of capital and expanding government balance sheets following Covid-19 have significantly increased the cost of capital projects while leaving many governments with less money to spend. In the UK, for example, there are £1.6tn of unfunded programmes and projects up to 2040. According to EY analysis, only around £900bn of these will be covered by…

  • Voyager 2 plasma instrument shuttered to preserve power as probe nears 50 years in space

    Nasa scientists have turned off one of the instruments on the near 50-year-old Voyager 2 space probe as its electrical power supply continues to decline. Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 and has travelled more than 20 billion kilometres from Earth. It continues to use four science instruments to study the region outside the solar system’s heliosphere, the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun. While mission engineers have been trying to avoid turning off any of its key instruments for as long as possible, they recently made the decision to shut down the plasma science instrument that is designed to measure the flow of charged atoms in the space surrounding the craft. It has only managed to collect limited data in recent years because of its orientation relative…

  • Factory of the future: manufacturers harness AI to revolutionise the assembly line

    Comment: Why do manufacturers invest in technologies such as robotics, cloud computing and AI? What are the main barriers to adopting new tech? And how do these manufacturers plan to invest in the future? Anders Billesø Beck, vice president for strategy and innovation at Universal Robots, provides some answers. Prioritising the evolving needs of end customers is essential for any business. To gain a deeper understanding of what these needs are, Universal Robotics, a Danish manufacturer of collaborative robot arms (cobots), carried out a survey of 1,200 manufacturers in Europe and North America. The focus of the survey was to find out how these manufacturers are using technology now and how they plan to invest in the future. The four key takeaways from the survey include: 1. AI: From…

  • IBM opens first European quantum data centre in Germany

    US firm IBM has opened its first quantum data centre outside of the US near Stuttgart in Germany, enabling European companies and research institutes to access its quantum computing systems. The new European IBM Quantum Data Center includes two utility-scale IBM Quantum Eagle-based systems. IBM claims these systems are capable of performing computations beyond the brute-force simulation capabilities of classical computers. The centre will also soon feature a new IBM Quantum Heron-based system. First introduced at the end of last year, IBM Heron is the company’s highest performing quantum chip. It offers reduced error rates, 16 times better performance and a 25-fold increase in speed over 2022 IBM quantum systems. The Quantum advantage, which companies like IBM refer to, is the point at…

  • China’s $100bn cleantech investment turbocharging global energy transition

    China’s unprecedented “tsunami” of foreign investment in renewable energy and transport electrification projects since 2023 is turbocharging the global energy transition, according to a report. The Green capital tsunami report from Climate Energy Finance (CEF), a Sydney-based research group, outlines how China is leading the decarbonisation race. The report findings reveal how China is leading the world in every aspect of decarbonisation – in R&D, investment, innovation, manufacturing, installation and exports of key clean energy technologies spanning solar, wind, batteries, new energy vehicles, grids, hydro and green hydrogen. Its domestic cleantech investment is double that of the EU and the US. Based on investments currently proposed and confirmed, the report calculates that Chinese…

  • Engineering and the art of the prompt

    The creative abilities of GenAI can appear impressive, but depend on the user being able to tell it precisely what they want. Are engineers poised to benefit from increasing demand for this skill? When generative AI (GenAI) makes headlines, it’s often for negative reasons. That could be its ability to create images that are realistic but misleading, or output that reflects racial and gender prejudices inherent in the material it has been trained on. Regardless of its potential weaknesses, businesses of all kinds are recognising GenAI’s potential, with plans to use it in a range of ways. Increasingly, though, awareness is growing of the importance of the human element not just to check AI’s output, but to make sure it is being asked the right questions in the first place. Image credit…

  • A more strategic approach is essential to skilling the UK’s workforce, says report

    A report published by EngineeringUK has highlighted how a comprehensive STEM education and skills strategy is essential to skilling the UK’s workforce. The report – Advancing STEM careers provision in England: Key lessons and opportunities – looks at what is working well in careers education in schools and colleges, and what requires urgent attention. With a rising and pressing demand for engineering and technology roles, primarily driven by the UK’s net zero goals and the increasing prominence of green jobs, there urgently needs to be a skilled workforce to fill those roles. The report calls for a more strategic approach to careers provision in England and for greater investment in the careers system and infrastructure. Dr Hilary Leevers, CEO of EngineeringUK, said: “We welcome the…

  • What’s in store for Advanced Engineering attendees?

    Advanced Engineering, the UK’s premier annual event for the engineering and manufacturing sectors, has announced this year’s keynote speakers. The six industry leaders — and 150 plus other speakers — will share their expertise and insights on critical industry issues during talks across several different forums. The two-day show will take place at the NEC in Birmingham on October 30 and 31, 2024. The first of this year’s keynote speakers, Brian Holliday, is a leading figure in industrial technology and digital manufacturing. As the head of Siemens Digital Industries for the UK and Ireland, he oversees advanced automation, industry software, systems integration and R&D. He is an expert on productivity, digital manufacturing and industrial strategy, often contributing to media discussions.…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • IET and E+T magazine win multiple awards at the annual Memcom Excellence Awards

    E+T magazine and the IET won awards in numerous categories at the recent Memcom Excellence Awards, including Best Magazine, Best Website, Best Venue and Best Strategy for Member Engagement or Recruitment. The Memcom Awards are an annual awards ceremony for professional membership organisations. It celebrates innovation, creativity and impact in the membership sector. Earlier this year, E+T magazine was shortlisted in three categories: Best Website, Best Digital Transformation and Best Magazine (circulation more than 20,000). On the night, E+T walked away as winners of Best Magazine and was highly commended in the Best Website category. For the Best Magazine win, the judges said: “Impressive innovative and engaging content that is circulated to 156,000 members in 148 countries. The multimedia…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • The software era has begun: will you turn left or right?

    Comment: The deep software-driven transformation of the automotive industry should be a wake-up call for manufacturing. David Hughes, director of UKI Solutions Consulting at PTC, discusses why a new approach to product development is needed. Way back in 1965, MIT developed the Apollo Guidance Computer for Nasa’s Apollo program – the world’s first widely recognised embedded software system. Just six years later, in 1971, Intel released the first microprocessor, the 4004. This freed embedded software systems from hardware devices as independent computing units, and was a milestone in modern computer engineering. Fast forward to today, where software working on microprocessors is about to take over the world – or, at least, the role played by hardware in product development in the past century…

  • Breakthrough in medical imaging generates high-quality scans of blood vessels in real time

    A new handheld scanner generates highly detailed photoacoustic tomography (PAT) imaging scans in real time, providing doctors with an accurate view of a patient’s blood vessels. Researchers involved in the study at University College London (UCL) say this medical imaging breakthrough could offer the potential for earlier diagnosis of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and arthritis. PAT imaging uses laser-generated ultrasound waves to visualise subtle changes (an early marker of disease) in veins less than 1mm in scale and arteries up to 15mm deep in human tissues. However, existing PAT scanners require the patient to be completely still for more than five minutes in order for the technology to generate a high enough quality 3D image of their blood vessels. In this study…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • IET comment - Why only 20% of the British Public can Identify a Secure Password

    Dr Junade Ali, IET fellow and cyber-security expert, reminds us that longer is better when it comes to securing our assets with uncrackable but memorable passwords. Every few days it seems there is yet another data breach of passwords online, and it gets ever harder for us to keep on top of our cyber security – even for those of us who do this for a living. But in an evolving online world, having strong passwords is more important than ever. When the first computer password emerged in 1961, it was never intended to secure our most valuable assets as society eventually moved online. However, over the following decades, more complex password rules were implemented to improve their security. Users were asked to remember complex passwords containing punctuation and numbers. This led to another…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • UK government’s pylon roll-out plan receives backlash from local councils

    Local councils have warned they will launch a High Court challenge to block the government’s plan to roll out electricity pylons across the UK. Essex, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk county councils are concerned that the pylons will “wreck” local landscapes. As a result, all four councils have warned they will launch a High Court challenge to block the plans. The energy grid is formed from a complex web of pylons, cables, substations and transformers. But the current infrastructure is reaching capacity and cannot transport much more electricity. With the increase in electricity generated through renewables sources, particularly wind farms off the coast of Scotland, the energy grid needs to be expanded in order to transport electricity to homes and businesses across the country. …

  • Four firms shortlisted to build the UK’s next-generation nuclear power plants

    The government has shortlisted four firms that could build a raft of new miniature nuclear power plants in the UK known as small modular reactors (SMR). British firm Rolls-Royce SMR, which has been exploring the technology for several years, is one of the contenders, alongside GE Hitachi, Holtec Britain and Westinghouse Electric Company. The tender to build the new SMRs was first announced by Great British Nuclear (GBN) last year, with six possible entrants including EDF, which ultimately failed to submit a bid by the deadline, and US firm NuScale Power, which was eliminated from the process earlier this week. A spokesperson for NuScale said it had been told it did not need additional support getting to market because it had already begun production of its reactor designs. The shortlist…

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