Connaught Motor Co. Ltd.

The “green cars” produced to date all have one disadvantage: performance. Persuading the majority of people to drive greener will only really be achieved when environmentally-friendly vehicles offer the same power and pizzazz as their thirstier counterparts.

Now Connaught have come to Wales to produce a vehicle that is light in weight, fast and responsive – while its hybrid drive train enables it to compete in running costs with modest family saloons.

In 2007, an agreement was reached with the Welsh Assembly Government for the whole of the Connaught business to move from the West Midlands to Llanelli. A £4m investment from Wales was matched by £8m of private investment.

Here they will produce the Connaught Type-D GT, with a 2 litre, all original, V10 supercharged engine as a lightweight, high performance, four seat sports car capable of 170 mph, to be followed by the Type-Dh, the hybridised version, without a supercharger, but still capable of 140 mph, and 42 mpg. The HYBRID + system developed for the car uses super capacitors to store the regenerated energy. The total weight of this system is below 50kgms and it runs at just 48V, where the conventional battery hybrids run at 350 volts, with a considerable corresponding overall weight penalty.

 Their order book for the new sports cars is already starting to fill up - for a vehicle ranging from £45,000 to £75,000. It will be one of the few cars currently entering production to comply with the ultra-low emissions targets set for 2010. In December, 2007, Connaught won The Rushlight 2007 Award for Low Emission Powered Travel.

The Connaught design team then had what it describes as a “Eureka moment”: the possibility of fitting the HYBRID + system to Light Commercial Vehicles. The retro-fit system can give an immediate fuel saving of 15 to 25%, with an equivalent reduction in CO2 emissions (dependent upon the drive cycle). Already Tesco.com have ordered 352 systems, and other fleet users and leasing companies are signed up in principle.

The decision to relocate to Wales was made for a whole series of reasons. “Grant aid was important, but so too have been all the other support elements,” says CEO Tony Martindale, “such as the property and staff relocation advice, linking us into first class suppliers in Wales and the first rate academic research departments here.”

“Because this part of Wales has so many automotive businesses, finding highly skilled staff will represent no problem. But it was the sheer political will that impressed us most of all,” concludes Tony. “We really felt that Wales wanted us to be here, and would do everything in their power to make our business succeed.”