Cornwall based Watt Electric Vehicle Company (WEVC) has announced plans to make 5,000 electric delivery vans a year.

The St Columb Major based EV firm has shown details of the platform on which the vehicles will be built, called the Passenger and Commercial EV Skateboard (PACES). It will form the basis for a range of highly customisable electric buses and vans.

Thanks to the battery being installed in the body structure of the vehicles, overall weight should be kept to a minimum.

“With ever-increasing pressure on urban emissions, coupled with the growth in home delivery, we’ve been approached by multiple commercial vehicle manufacturers and fleet operators who are in desperate need of developing the next generation of electric vans, trucks and buses,” said WEVC founder Neil Yates.

“As electrification of the sector only accelerates, what these companies need is a ready-to-go, sophisticated yet cost-effective EV platform on which to build their vehicles. That’s Watt Electric Vehicle Company’s Paces architecture.”

A prototype of the WEVC van is set to be revealed at the end of the first quarter of 2022 with plans to mass produce them in 2023 in the Midlands. A new factory in Cornwall is also planned for 2023, where the automotive firm plans to build sports cars and passenger EVs on behalf of other brands.