YASA Awarded The Royal Automobile Club’s 2023 Dewar Trophy.

The Royal Automobile Club’s Dewar Trophy has been awarded to YASA – in recognition of the successful development and commercialisation of a new electric propulsion technology, the YASA axial-flux motor.

The prestigious award was presented to YASA Founder and CTO, Tim Woolmer, at an event held today at the historic RAC Club in London.

The Dewar Trophy is awarded annually by The Royal Automobile Club for ‘Outstanding  British Technical Achievement' in the automotive industry, and is one of the most prestigious awards in British engineering.

This year’s recipient, YASA, originally spun-out from Oxford University in 2009 by Tim Woolmer while he was studying his PhD in Engineering. Today, YASA’s 400 strong UK-based team are recognised as world-leading pioneers in electric propulsion technology.

In 2021, YASA was acquired by Mercedes-Benz AG and is now at the heart of Mercedes’ plans to go fully electric by 2030.

The uniquely compact yet powerful topology of the axial-flux YASA electric motor frees up space and opens up exciting opportunities for electric vehicle design, as evidenced by the stunning Mercedes-Benz Vision One-Eleven concept unveiled earlier this year. YASA’s current generation of in-market products already deliver 250bhp from a 12kg electric motor package. However, the next generation of YASA motors promise to deliver another step change in performance and weight-saving.

The Dewar Trophy caps off another successful year for YASA, who were recently awarded £21.2 million in funding and grants from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) UK to ‘develop an electric wheel motor and active suspension handling system’. The project is part of the UK government's ambition to support the scale up of the research and development of net-zero vehicle technology.

Tim Woolmer, Founder and CTO at YASA said:

“Receiving the Dewar Trophy is a huge honour for the entire YASA team, and a tremendous recognition of our axial-flux electric motor technology. We’re proud that YASA is at the forefront of the electric revolution as we, together with Mercedes-Benz, continue to reset the bar for electric driving experiences.”

Ben Cussons, Chairman of the Dewar Technical Committee, commented:

“The Dewar Trophy was originally presented in 1906. It is awarded at the discretion of the Technical Committee of the Royal Automobile Club, in any calendar year when the committee considers there is a contender of sufficient merit. The list of past winners is a roll-call of leading names such as Dunlop, Triplex, Lucas, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, JCB, all of which encapsulate engineering brilliance. Now there is yet another to add. Led by Dr Tim Woolmer, YASA’s development of axial-flux motors captures the simple essence of this special award – an outstanding British technical achievement. This is exactly what we have here today. It’s an engineering breakthrough that has evolved electric propulsion to the next level, and is likely to influence the cars we will drive in the future. YASA is also overturning the norms of materials technology and manufacturing processes, as it gears up to mass-produce its components. We heartily congratulate Tim and his restlessly ambitious team for what they’ve achieved.”