TVR NEEDS TO START DELIVERING, LITERALLY

IT’S BEEN CLOSE to five years since TVR revealed the production version of the new Griffith, the first car since its unexpected but very welcome rebirth. Since then, a customer car has yet to drive out of the still unfinished factory in South Wales.

TVR said late last year that its future had been secured by a joint venture with lithium mining company Ensorcia Metals. This deal, TVR promised, would help finally get the V8-powered Griffith into production, a car for which TVR still holds a year’s production of deposits, and would in time be the basis for electric TVRS.

That electric Griffith has now been confirmed for as soon as 2024 (p14). On the same day as announcing the Griffith EV and a surprise sponsorship of Formula E races, a “multimillionpound” investment from Ensorcia was announced, helping to service the company’s debt as well as funding the company’s model ambitions.

For now, talk of a medium- or longerterm future, plans and aspirations is largely meaningless: at the heart of this famous old car brand sits a car for which people are awaiting delivery. There won’t be a future, electric or otherwise, if TVR can’t start making and delivering the Griffith. We still await that day.

mark.tisshaw@haymarket.com @mtisshaw