Matt Boyle runs a New York stock exchange-listed company from the Team Valley. Peter McCusker talks to the boss of electric vehicle component maker Sevcon.

IN a corner of Sevcon's 25,000sq ft premises in the Team Valley, Gateshead, two engineers are getting ready to test drive a Smart car.

Chief executive Matt Boyle has asked the staff to convert it from an internal combustion engine to an electric motor in four weeks using Sevcon’s electric control system. They have finished two days early.

In another part of the factory a third engineer was working on further development of a Sevcon control system for a huge electric, mining excavator, with a 6ft wheel span.

And in another room teams of engineers are huddled together looking at ways of improving, and developing further, the world-leading products that make up Sevcon’s portfolio of electric controllers.

As Boyle strides purposefully through the factory demonstrating the company’s achievements, and bantering with his staff, he exudes the enthusiasm of a boy in a toy shop.

Fifteen years ago he was head-hunted to come to Sevcon as chief operating officer and one year later he was made chief executive.

He says it was, and still is, a dream move. “I love the job I have, and I really don’t think I could do any other,” he says.

And if this growing new technology company is ever sold? “That would be the death knell for me. I don’t think I could handle that.”

Born in Glasgow, Boyle already had a fondness for the region and needed no persuasion to move to the North East with wife Amy, and their three children, now aged 22, 15 and 11.

“We used to come down here for our holiday. We came as a family for ‘Glasgow fortnight’. For five consecutive years in the 1970s we holidayed in Whitley Bay.

“I developed a real fondness for the people. I loved the place. We used to travel around Northumberland and Morpeth – that’s the town where we now live.”

He doesn’t, however, spend much time at home as his job involves huge amounts of travel.

“I’m almost permanently on a plane. I’ve travelled round the world three times in the last three months; two per cent of our sales are domestic.”

As well as its head office in Gateshead, Sevcon has a facility in Wrexham and assembly plants in Shanghai, Mexico and Poland.

The company was spun out of one of the world’s oldest electric vehicles maker, Gateshead-based Smiths Electric Vehicles in the early 1960s. It was part of the Joyce Loebl engineering group and five years after it was established in Gateshead, Sevcon was bought by US-based Tech/Ops and opened an office in Boston, followed by a listing on the US stock market in 1988.

Sevcon now employs 67 staff on the Team Valley and Gateshead continues to be Sevcon’s main research and development facility. It is also where Boyle and fellow board member chief financial officer Paul Farquhar are based.

The company is one of five global operators in the electric vehicle control technology market for the industrial market, focusing on vehicles such as forklift trucks.

Sevcon controls act as the brain of the vehicle system. Linking the battery to motorised functions, the control units are used to vary the speed and movement of electric vehicles, to integrate specialised functions and to optimise energy consumption.

Its controls are forklift trucks, aerial lifts, airport ground support vehicles, mining vehicles and two-wheeled scooters.

Over the last few years Sevcon’s performance has fluctuated in line with the global economy. Sales halved in 2009 but the company’s performance is now improving with revenues for 2010 showing a double digit growth finishing on £17m.

In recent years it received £500,000 from the regional development agency One North East to aid its research into the low-carbon vehicle (LCV) market.

Boyle is focusing the company’s attentions on LCVs but is not losing sight of the bigger picture.

He says: “Our traditional markets are coming back and we intend to stick to the knitting, to continue doing what we do best. We are involved in a lot of new projects, both on-road and off-road .

“There is a lot of interest in low- carbon vehicles, but it’s a bit of a waiting game at the moment. The Far East is the most ardent supporter but that is mainly for the two-wheel market.

“For four-wheeled low-carbon vehicles to make major inroads then the infrastructure needs to change. Europe is more focused towards the four-wheeled market with Renault, Nissan, the Italians and the French leading the way.

“In the US there is a problem. Its huge commuting distances make charging an issue. It really all depends on the price of oil. Once it reaches US$4 – and it’s now US$5 – then it matters in the US.

“But other countries, such as China and India, are taking a longer-term view. They are looking at the environment, not the price of gas.

“Our products are very good. We are a recognised leader in the two-wheel market. We have been around for 50 years and have our own intellectual properties. That’s one of the reasons we don’t get involved in joint ventures.

“We don’t want an original equipment manufacturer turning round later and saying we own 20% of that, or 30% this.”

Boyle likes to talk, he’s energetic and never short of a wisecrack. After drawing breath he’s off again when I ask him how he views the state of the UK economy.

“A country that does not invest in people and skills is just storing up problems for itself. I cannot get enough good engineers.

“They are very few and far between, and now I cannot get them from overseas. We are sponsoring people but it’s not attractive enough for many.

“They thought financial services could keep the country running. We could all be investment bankers. It hasn’t worked and I can’t see it changing for at least five to 10 years.”

Boyle says Gateshead will continue to be the company’s headquarters. The Team Valley operation is continuing to grow with Boyle set to recruit additional staff after boosting headcount by over 10% in the last year.

He says the company’s board, apart from the two Gateshead executives, is US-based and comprised of non- executive directors representing the major shareholders. Main shareholder is respected US financial commentator and market guru Mario Gabelli.

Boyle was born and raised in Glasgow and as the son of an engineer had only one thought of what he wanted as a career – although his first job was bouncer-barman-caller at a Glasgow bingo hall. “That was an experience,” he chuckles and you immediately know what he means.

At his hometown university he graduated in electrical engineering and computing science and found work with Ferranti Defence Systems in Edinburgh. It was when he joined Phillips in 1986 that he started thinking about branching out from engineering into running businesses.

He was headhunted to a senior job at GEC Alstrom in Essex. “Don’t say I worked in Essex,” he chuckles while talking about it. Next was the move to the North East.

Just as a forklift truck can spin on one wheel, with the intelligence rooted in a Sevcon controller, could LCVs do something similar in the future?

“Would motorists like to have the opportunity to spin their car completely round?” speculates Boyle.

Back on the factory floor Boyle shouts over to the two engineers working on the Smart car to see if it’s ready for a test run.

I get in and have a very short spin round the car park and wonder about the number of batteries – eight – that are need to power a small vehicle like a Smart.

The lithium used is not an abundant commodity, it’s tricky to dispose of and the power for the electric vehicle is likely to come from a carbon source, which leaves you wondering just how sustainable electric vehicles are.

Boyle speculates they may be popular as a second car, for shorter journeys.

Sevcon is currently working on the conversion of a Nissan Qashqai to electric, but with mass production of LCVs still some way away, Boyle is happy to stick to the knitting as he would call it – for now at least.