Scottish electric vehicle (EV) firm Munro plans to build a manufacturing facility in the UK in 2027, targeting industrial clients across mining, defence and construction.
Chief executive Avinash Rugoobur told the Financial Times the plant would be oriented towards domestic client demand, with output eventually scaling to thousands of vehicles per year.
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He added that the company’s smaller operational footprint and the bespoke requirements of its specialist customer base made home-market production financially viable, despite the UK’s higher energy and labour costs.
Established in 2018, Munro began by converting older Land Rovers to electric drivetrains before launching the Series M, a purpose-built model for off-road and heavy industrial applications.
The company currently builds dozens of vehicles annually in Scotland and anticipates reaching hundreds within the next year.
Alongside the facility announcement, Munro has named Rugoobur as chief executive and Tim Holbrow as chief financial officer as it pursues what the company describes as a £35bn ($47.09bn) market for industrial-use EVs.
The company indicated it may explore partnerships should it look to develop more than one plant.
The planned facility arrives as the UK government pursues a target of 1.3 million annual car production by 2035, compared with the roughly 824,000 units the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders forecast for this year.
Broader efforts to attract Chinese carmakers to the UK have largely come to nothing, with BYD and others choosing Spain and Hungary instead.
SAIC-owned MG this week announced an approximately €200m ($232.9m) investment in its first European manufacturing plant in Spain, with planned annual capacity of up to 120,000 vehicles.
The announcement follows news that Japan Automatic Transmission Company Ltd (Jatco), a subsidiary of Nissan Motor Company, has scrapped plans to produce powertrains for battery EVs in the UK.
The decision followed Nissan — which holds a 75% stake in Jatco — announcing significant cuts to its global BEV programme earlier this year amid weakening demand, including in the US, where the Trump administration withdrew BEV purchase tax incentives last September.
