The automotive industry is buzzing with continual news about electric vehicles, hybrid technology and most recently cars powered by gas turbines.

It has taken years to come to the fore, but finally designers have been forced to realise that given our love of the car, we can’t keep producing engines that pollute the planet to the long-term detriment of everyone. Incidents such as the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico have only served to highlight the issue.

But which way should designers and manufacturers adopt in the battle to go green?

Varying technologies are being developed simultaneously and mass-produced examples such as the electric-powered Nissan Leaf are about to come to the market.

While it is a serious subject it is also a pioneering time for engineers, none more so than the growing team at Oxford Yasa Motors.

Little more than a year ago, this firm span out of the engineering department of Oxford University. Using the ideas of Dr Malcolm McCulloch and Dr Tim Woolmer, it had the mandate to develop high-torque electric motors for general use and in specialist areas such as motor racing.

Now, such has been its early promise that it has just landed its second successive £1.45m tranche of funding from investors, including the university and Seven Spires Investment, and recently set up its headquarters in a 3,000 sq ft unit at Cholswell Court, Abingdon.

On top of that, it has won awards from The Engineer magazine and national charity the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP). The company is also shortlisted in the upcoming British Engineering Excellence Awards.

Understandably, chief executive Nick Farrant is a happy man and still excited about the core technology which he believes is several steps ahead of the competition.

“It is a major step forward in electrical motor technology,” he said.

“The next development for us is a number of road-going vehicle projects.”

Those projects range from the Formula Student racing car run by a team from Oxford Brookes University to a converted Nissan Qashqai.

The beauty of the Yasa Motors engine is that it is small but very powerful, offering high performance — a term not normally associated with electric vehicles.

Each will produce about 100 brake horse power. Since the engines weigh only 23kg, up to four can be fitted to any particular vehicle.

The actual power for these motors can be provided by a battery or or a hybrid engine. Additional energy can also be generated through braking.

Mr Farrant admits the technology is currently very expensive but believes that when full-scale manufacturing starts, motors can be produced for about £1,000 each, cheaper than a conventional petrol engine.

About ten motors a month can be produced in Abingdon, where the company employs 12 staff, but it hopes to be able to ramp up production in the not too distant future, although reaching the mass market is not the target now.

Mr Farrant said: “Our five-year goal is to be producing 15,000 to 20,000 motors a year.”

Tests are also being carried out using the power plant on motorcycles and the Yasa team are hoping to break the 100mph record for an electric-powered bike.

The potential of this type of technology was illustrated at this week’s Paris Motor Show, where a Jaguar concept car, the C-X75, was one of the star attractions.

It is powered by four electric motors connected to a battery charged by a pair of gas turbines that can run on diesel, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) or even biofuel, giving it a claimed top speed of 205mph but with minimal environmental impact.

Yasa is itself involved in the production of motors for the Morgan Life Car, a zero- emissions electric vehicle due to go on sale in 2012. It features a small battery while super-capacitors capture braking energy.

Mr Farrant is refreshing in his approach to developing “green” motoring. He is an engineer, not an environmentalist, seeing the task of producing low-emissions vehicles as a challenge, the results of which should then be used to convince the motoring public that it is a good idea.

He said: “It is less about being green, more about people wanting to buy these vehicles. Electric cars are still an aberration, not a mainstream feature and we have to buck that trend for the sake of the planet.”

Encouragingly, Mr Farrant believes the United States is also starting to warm to the idea of alternative technologies — it would be a major coup to convince the American motorist, brought up on the iconic V8 petrol engine, to start driving electric vehicles.

“We can produce an electric car turning out as much power as a V8 and we certainly seem to have captured people’s imagination,” he said.

But what is the likelihood of Yasa Motors surviving into the future without being snapped up by one of the major manufacturers?

Mr Farrant is adamant that it will continue to develop at its own pace and continue to pioneer the technology.

“We have developed a motor in our own right and that will be attractive to manufacturers but I am so excited about what we are doing here that it would have to be an incredible offer.”