Munro Vehicles, the Scottish electric off-road vehicle manufacturer, is due to announce a £6 million package of support as it prepares to step up production at its plant in East Kilbride.
The funding is from a consortium of investors and will be announced as the company finalises support from the Scottish government which has previously offered only small scale grants.
Co-founder Russ Peterson said the new deal will enable the company to scale up “significantly”, from building just 24 vehicles a year from next January to 500 a year by the third quarter of 2027.
Two years ago the firm said it had a pipeline of potential customers worth £68m and recently he announced that this had translated into £17m of firm orders.
“It has been hard to raise capital,. This latest round has been going on for 12 months. It’s a difficult investment market, said Mr Peterson who launched the business with his friend Ross Anderson in 2019 as the first car manufacturer of scale in Scotland since the Peugeot-Talbot plant closed in Linwood in 1981.
He said some of the early forecasts had changed, but the ambition remains unchanged, assuming the company can raise the required level of financial support.
“We have been capital constrained, but there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
The investment will enable the company to become cash flow positive with an expectation that it will be profitable once it is producing 250 vehicles.
By then it will probably need to move to new premises and a number of sites nearby in East Kilbride are under consideration. It is also likely to look at building vehicles close to overseas customers to reduce costs and provide after-sales service.
Prices have edged up because of the rising cost of components, though customers have been asked what specifications they would forfeit in order to keep the price down.
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