Joint venture to make EVs in Leamington Spa

More than 400 new jobs will be created in Leamington Spa after Detroit Electric signed a joint venture deal with Far East Smarter Energy Group of China worth $1.8bn.

The investment will see the development and production of a range of electric vehicles over the next three years, with a target of 100,000 sales by 2020.

Initially, this will see the completion of the final approval phase of its all-electric SP:01 sports car and the start of volume production, later this year, at the company’s Leamington Spa facilities in the UK, which will include the creation of 120 new engineering jobs and 100 new manufacturing jobs.

In parallel, the joint venture will establish an all-new design, research and development, testing and production facility with the intention of launching a new family of Detroit Electric vehicles, the first of which will be an all-new battery electric SUV that will enter production in late 2018, with another model due two years later.

To accommodate assembly lines for these new models, the company plans to expand its existing facilities in Leamington Spa and the workforce will double to over 400 directly employed colleagues, and as many again potentially employed indirectly at local businesses supplying services and support to the site.

Albert Lam, Chairman and CEO of Detroit Electric, said, ‘We have been working exceptionally hard over a long period to establish this joint venture and to secure funding for our ambitious new electric vehicle programme, so I am delighted to be able to announce this new joint venture which represents a significant boost to vehicle manufacturing and the EV industry in Europe and an important new step towards bringing our family of EVs to market.’