Companies: TRK   

Fuel-saving gearbox hopeful Torotrak lost £10 million in the year to March, but claims potentially lucrative volume production of its patented Infinitely Variable Transmissions (IVTs) is only a matter of time, writes Ben Cobley.

TechMARK-listed Torotrak pushed turnover marginally ahead to £214,000 after spending another £7 million on development and £3 million on administration. The £10 million loss does not reflect a profit of £4.5 million on the sale of shares in technology concern BTG, plus £2.6 million from the Government's research and development tax credit programme.

At year-end, Torotrak had £21 million of cash. The company says this 'leaves us in a strong financial position to pursue our strategy to market launch without recourse to further funding'.

Chief executive Maurice Martin maintains the company is 'metamorphosing from an engineering development firm into a marketing and technology transfer company'. This means it is trying harder to commercialise its technology to gain a solid income stream from royalty payments.

This could be done by securing the agreement of car manufacturers and, or specialist automotive transmission manufacturers to use Torotrak's patented parts and processes in new products. In tests, prototype models incorporating them are said to have produced fuel efficiency gains of 14-28 per cent.

Martin says: 'It is the classic problem of the little inventor... You have got to tie the knots.'

Car companies and transmission manufacturers need to be persuaded to take up the technology, as well as the transmission system. 'Ford, GM and BMW are all convinced of the need for IVT,' Martin says. 'We are now closing the supply side of the loop.' Aisin, among others, is satisfied with the tests.

Unfortunately, in January GM followed Toyota in deciding not to take out a production licence on IVT. Martin says GM did not want to bulk produce a new product that might not secure market acceptance.

Torotrak surged 26 per cent to 28.25p on the day, valuing the company at £33.1 million.