{"text":[[{"start":7.65,"text":"Munro, Scotland’s first carmaker in more than four decades, plans to build a new plant for industrial-use electric vehicles in the UK in a boost for the government’s ambitions to boost car manufacturing."}],[{"start":19.85,"text":"Avinash Rugoobur, who was appointed Munro’s chief executive on Tuesday, told the FT that the start-up would aim to start building its UK plant from 2027 to meet domestic client demand in the mining, defence and construction sectors."}],[{"start":35.35,"text":"Despite the UK’s high energy and labour costs, Rugoobur said it would be possible to build the vehicles profitably because of the company’s smaller scale and the customisation needs of its specialist clients."}],[{"start":48.8,"text":"“I don’t think Munro will ever be getting in a price war,” said the former General Motors executive and ex-president of electric van group Arrival. "}],[{"start":57.75,"text":"Founded in 2018, Munro began with the idea of converting older Land Rovers to EVs and has since produced a specialist model — the Series M — for off-road and heavy industrial use. "}],[{"start":71.1,"text":"The company appointed Rugoobur as CEO and another former Arrival executive Tim Holbrow as chief financial officer to scale up the business to target a £35bn market for industrial-use EVs. "}],[{"start":84.05,"text":"Munro makes only dozens of vehicles a year in Scotland, but it plans to increase production to hundreds by next year. “You can actually scale to thousands and tens of thousands . . . but the idea is for us to go step by step,” Holbrow said. "}],[{"start":98.1,"text":"The UK factory will aim to produce thousands of vehicles a year, and the company may consider partnerships if it were to build more than one plant."}],[{"start":107.25,"text":"Munro’s decision to build in the UK comes at a time when the government has laid out ambitious plans for the country to produce 1.3mn vehicles annually by 2035, compared with about 824,000 units the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders expects to be made this year."}],[{"start":126.35,"text":"The government has tried to persuade Chinese companies to build new plants in the UK with carmakers such as Japan-based Nissan talking with rivals to use its idle capacity at the Sunderland plant. "}],[{"start":138.54999999999998,"text":"But with the UK’s high energy costs, BYD and other Chinese carmakers have chosen countries such as Spain and Hungary to build their vehicles. "}],[{"start":149.04999999999998,"text":"SAIC-owned MG on Monday announced that it would invest about €200mn to build its first European manufacturing facility in Spain with planned annual capacity of up to 120,000 vehicles. "}],[{"start":161.99999999999997,"text":"The last UK car plant was built and launched by British luxury-car maker Aston Martin in Wales in 2019. "}],[{"start":169.44999999999996,"text":"While the electric transition has been much slower for commercial vehicles, Rugoobur said it was easier to customise battery-powered models for industrial use because of the smaller number of components. "}],[{"start":180.84999999999997,"text":"“What would be the best solution to have the most ‘unbreakable product’ out there and the answer is actually an electric vehicle,” he added."}],[{"start":199.14999999999998,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780401660_5364.mp3"}