Luxury sports car brand Aston Martin has announced a deal to develop its first commercial electric vehicle (EV).

It has signed a Memorandum of Understand with Chinese technology company LeEco to create a production version of its RapidE EV concept.

They aim to bring it to market in the next three years and explore the potential of developing other EVs later this decade.

Andy Palmer, Aston Martin CEO said the company is dedicated to developing a range of cars with low emission technologies.

He added: “We have been encouraged by the project speed and technical depth shown by [LeEco] in the development of the RapidE concept towards full production. Bringing the RapidE to market by 2018 is an important milestone for both companies.”

Last month ELN spoke to car manufacturers and industry experts to find out the challenges in the UK EV industry.