LDV Vans buy out paves way for electric van future

• May. 18 by Joseph Chapman (0)

Birmingham van company LDV have received an offer from Malaysian car importer Weststar in a last ditch buy out, Sky News reports.

The offer, thought to have been signed on Monday night, is set to save hundreds of jobs and allow LDV to restart production this July, after 8 months of closure.

This has also given the company hope in their attempt to become Europe’s primary electric van producer.

Sky News’s Midlands correspondent David Crabtree said: “We could be looking at the Great Escape, it really is a last-minute rescue effort. Only today we were filming here as workers collected what they thought would be their last pay packet.

“LDV has a good product, a brand new all-electric van. It has all the green credentials. Something like £500m was spent developing that. LDV hoped that would make it very much a company of the future and I think Weststar has seen that.”

The outlook has been bleak in recent months with administration plans going to the wire and further governmental backing being rejected. However the company have been praised for their attempt to follow governmental calls to go green in the face of the recession.

Overseas electric van companies have been supported their governments by receiving tax breaks and calls for similar aid for LDV in this country have been re-iterated, now that the buy out is set to stabilise the company.