Sports car maker TVR fights for cash injection

Clients made a £5,000 deposit for Griffith from TVR. Photo: Jason Fong

Sports car maker TVR is rushing to get funding so it can file vital paperwork to avoid delisting from the UK company register.

Chairman Les Edgar insists there is no way for the company no risk, and she just waits for some documents from the investor before applying. called the confirmation statement that a limited liability company must make annually.

He was due to file with Companies House in April. A notice posted at Companies House revealed that TVR Electric Vehicles Ltd has two months, starting Tuesday, July 4, to update its paperwork with powers or risk being dissolved. If she doesn't, her assets will belong to the crown.

But the main shareholder, Mr Edgar, told The Sunday Telegraph that his firm is «just waiting for the investment round to close before submitting our confirmation statement.»

Les Edgar bought TVR from Nikolai Smolensky in 2013. Photo: Jeff Pugh

He added that an existing investor is awaiting approval for the new funding, “and even though the paperwork was filed some time ago, we only received approval last week. We will not announce further investments – this is an existing investor.”

Mr. Edgar, a video game entrepreneur, bought TVR in 2013 from Russian Nikolai Smolensky. In 2017, he introduced the new Griffith, a five-liter, front-engined, manual-transmission, rear-wheel drive V8 engine developed in collaboration with Gordon Murray, best known for his work on the 243-mph McLaren F1 hypercar.< /p>

Since then, the company has been trying to get Griffith off the ground. Coronavirus shutdowns halted progress, but last year the company said it expected to launch the model in 2024, built at its Wales factory, and that an electric version was in development.

Customers contributed 5,000 pounds. deposits for Griffith. The Welsh Government invested £500,000 to buy a 3% stake in the business and also provided TVR with a £2 million loan.

TVR was founded in 1947 by engineer Trevor Wilkinson in Blackpool. However, her most successful period came in the 1990s under former chemical engineer Peter Wheeler, when she built models such as the Chimaera and Cerbera.

The cars combined striking two-seat body designs with a five-liter V8 engine . engines, mostly bought from Rover.

Mr Wheeler eventually sold to Mr Smolensky in 2004, but just two years later demand fell to the point that the Blackpool plant was closed, leaving led to the loss of 158 jobs. , ending the association of the brand with the city.