Melrose eyes electric cars

TURNAROUND giant Melrose will spend around £300m over the next five years to extend its reach in the electric car market.

It currently spends about £50m a year on electric vehicle research and development.

The move will include building factories to make car parts as it tries to win a chunk of the anticipated boom in customers switching from diesel and petrol.

Melrose has also identified savings of more than £300m per year that it will make in its GKN Automotive arm, which it acquired when it bought the British engineering stalwart for £8bn in a hostile takeover last year.