The saga of TVR is often sad, sometimes funny, and seemingly never-ending. Just when you thought you’d never hear from the plucky, nearly extinct British sports car brand again, its name pops up in the news. This time, though, TVR didn’t just disappoint hopeful would-be customers with flashy concepts that never came to be. According to Autocar, it actually disappointed the entire Welsh government.
Back in 2016, the Welsh government gave TVR $2.6 million, plus an additional $500,000 in equity shares, in hopes that the defunct sports car brand would build its cars in Wales. Even after that initial cash drop, Wales continued its attempts to court TVR into building cars on its soil. It spent another $6 million on the Ebbw Vale factory and an additional nearly $10 million on restoring the old building. All said and done, Wales is into TVR for more than $18 million.
However, according to Welsh auditor general Adrian Crompton, TVR “was still not able to lease the building for production purposes.” Instead, TVR decided to put Wales squarely in the friendzone and set up shop at the Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire, England.
Despite rejecting Wales’ advances, but still taking its money, the country still owned 3% of TVR from the equity shares it bought. TVR did repay some of Wales’ money after it sold some of its shares to lithium production company Ensorcia. But the Wales/TVR saga isn’t over.
According to Crompton, the investment from Enscorcia allowed TVR “to repay the Welsh government loan and accrued interest but, so far, is less than the estimated £40m necessary for car production.” In 2021, TVR received $52 million (£40 million) worth of orders but, Crompton said it still lacks the funds to fulfill them. And since it can’t produce those orders, its share price is below what the Welsh government bought in for, so it can’t sell it without losing money.
I think, as car enthusiasts, we all want TVR to succeed. How cool would it be to see cars like the stunning TVR Griffith, with its Gordon Murray Automotive-designed chassis and Cosworth-tuned Ford V8, driving around? But it seems that no matter who buys, invests, or even tries to help TVR, it can’t get out of its own way, even if that help comes from the Welsh government.
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