Companies: TRK   

Fuel-saving gearbox hopeful Torotrak lost £10m in the year to March. However, the company reckons potentially lucrative volume production of its patented Infinitely Variable Transmissions (IVTs) product is only a matter of time. The loss, achieved on turnover of £214,000, does not include a £4.5m profit accrued on the sale of shares, plus a boon of £2.6m in R&D tax credits. Chief executive Maurice Martin says Torotrak's suffers from 'the classic problem of the little inventor... you have got to tie the knots', with car companies and transmission manufacturers (to whom much of its work is outsourced) having to agree to take up the technology. Martin comments: 'Ford, General Motors and BMW are all convinced of the need for the IVT', adding that 'we are now closing the supply side of the loop'. The world's largest such firm, Aisin, is apparently satisfied with tests. Unfortunately, in January GM followed Toyota in declining to take out a production licence on the IVT, saying it wanted to follow developments. At the end of the period, Torotrak had £21m of cash, most of it on deposit. According to its results statement: 'This leaves us in a strong financial position to pursue our strategy to market launch without recourse to further funding.'