Tanfield secures £1.6m funding from UK Government for electric people carriers

Tanfield (AIM: TAN) the electric vehicle manufacturer, announced that it would be eligible to receive £1.6m in funding from the UK Government as part of a consortium bid to develop electric passenger vehicles.
Tanfield's current operations focus on vehicles used by industry, but today's announcement marks a potentially significant step towards the commercial vehicle market.

The funding will go towards an estimated £3.2 million cost to develop and trial sixteen vehicles under the Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator Programme. Tanfield is working with Ford, extending its current relationship with the US vehicle maker.

The trial will include the development of five electric people carriers, based on Ford's Connect Tourneo platform, one minibus based on the Ford Trasit chassis and Tanfield will also build 10 electric taxis through its collaboration with Manganese Bronze.

Darren Kell, CEO of Tanfield, said: "This funding will support our plans to transfer leading edge electric vehicle technology from our vans and trucks into passenger vehicles. This project opens up a raft of exciting possibilities for us. Tanfield is already acknowledged as the leader in electric vehicles that move goods; this enables us to address the market for electric vehicles that move people."

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk