Connaught Motor Company – the team behind the world’s first green high performance hybrid sports coupe - is setting up its global manufacturing and R&D headquarters in Wales.

The £12million investment, which will create 200 new highly skilled jobs over the next three years, was announced by Enterprise Minister Andrew Davies.  Connaught’s decision to establish its headquarters in Wales is being supported by the Welsh Assembly Government with regional selective assistance as well as SMARTCymru funding for research and development of advanced hybrid technology.

Connaught is one of the famous British marques dating back to the 1950s and had the distinction of winning the Syracuse Grand Prix in Sicily in 1955 - the first time a British driver, Tony Brooks had won a Formula One GP in a British car.

The brand, which is still synonymous with innovative design and technology development, was revived in 2002 after a 40 year gap by Tim Bishop and Tony Martindale.

Under their direction Connaught has already developed five leading class prototype vehicles that have caused considerable excitement and interest in the auto industry generating hundreds of enquiries.

Production of the Connaught Type-D commences in Wales in 2007, with the first customer vehicle due off the production line early 2008.

Connaught is a highly innovative, technology driven company led by an extremely experienced and talented team. The company’s focus on alternative fuel technology and niche vehicle capability is of particular interest to us in Wales and has a synergy with the work already under development in this field through our automotive clusters programme.

The limited edition 4 seater Connaught Type D GT Syracuse with a Connaught designed V10 2-litre supercharged 300bhp engine will be its first car built in Wales, to be followed by the hybrid version – the Connaught Type-D  V10 sports coupe which combines high performance with excellent fuel economy.

It will be the world’s first truely high performance hybrid sports coupe and has been designed in-house, is patent protected and delivers 30% reduction in CO2 emissions when compared to vehicles in its class. It will have a V10 petrol electric engine making the car capable of 42mpg, 0-60 in 6.2 seconds with a top speed of 150mph.

Connaught anticipates building 100 cars in the first year, 250 in the second year, rising to 1000 in year five, targeting the UK and European markets.

It anticipates recruiting 30 engineers in the first year and scaling up as production of its first vehicle rolls off the production line 07/08.

Fred Page-Roberts, chairman of Connaught said the decision to establish their operation in Wales and manufacture in-house was taken in part because of the high level of support from the Assembly Government and its International Business Wales team.

“The demand for well made ultra specialist cars is growing and total UK production of such vehicles is approaching an all-time high of 25,000 a year.  Given this and the growing demand for greener technological solutions Connaught's ambitions add up to a sustainable long term enterprise.”