Morgan boss: UK sports car makers urgently need clarity on 2030

"Our customers are telling us that they would like to keep on buying internal combustion engines, and the legislation isn't clear today on when we will be required and forced to move to EVs in all markets.

"We have other markets around the world, and they are internal combustion-engined, and our cars are incredibly clean. It's an incredibly clean engine and transmission package, the cars are really lightweight, they're low-emission, they're actually really sustainable by design."

Asked if Morgan could stop selling cars in the UK completely if its products become non-compliant, Hole said: "That's an outcome I would never want, because this is our home market: it's the country we all live in, we all love and where we build our cars.

"Morgan would survive. However, that's not something we want to do. That would be a very last resort."

While it faces up to uncertainty in its home market, Morgan has shifted focus to a programme of global expansion. It has entered the US market and ramped up its presence in the Middle East and there are more announcements on future export markets to come.

"For us, it's about finding new markets and understanding legislations,” Hole said. "The outlook in the UK is not clear at the moment. However, the UK is becoming a smaller part of our business.

"At the end of last year, we entered into the US market, and that has been a really important point of diversification for us. We're able to sell 325 cars a year in the US, which is about half of the cars we build. So that's a massive improvement.

"There are markets around the world that we do understand, and we know the longevity in those markets.

"In the European Union, there is actually relative stability: we know where we are with the regulations and our cars are type-approved in Europe first and foremost. They're all European small-series-approved and then we have GB approval subsequently."

Despite the uncertainty in the UK, Hole said that the government is "engaging with" the UK's low-volume sports car makers - and he is due to speak with government officials on the electrification of niche vehicle makers, along with the bosses of Caterham, BAC and Ariel.

"We're all very friendly with one another, and we are interested in preserving this industry," Hole said. "The previous government made some concessions for small manufacturers, and I ultimately believe sense will prevail here and some accommodations will be made about internal combustion engines in manufacturers like this. My sense of the mood is that that will happen."

In spite of the ongoing appeal of its ICE cars, Morgan has begun development work on an EV - although Hole said it won't launch one until it's confident that an EV can perform and behave similarly to a Super 3, Plus Four or Plus Six.

"We haven't stopped the electrification plan, but what's fundamental is that our cars are lightweight and quite dynamic, and they're becoming more and more dynamic," he said. "And it's important that when we introduce an EV to the market, it also has to be lightweight, it has to be dynamic. That's a core part of Morgan's DNA. It can't be a big car and a heavy car."

Hole revealed that Morgan is working with an unnamed vehicle manufacturer on a new platform for future electric sports cars that fit that brief.

He declined to give full details of this project but said Morgan is "very, very closely" collaborating with its partner on the development of the new EV platform, rather than looking to secure a pure-supply arrangement, as it has with four- and six-cylinder engines from BMW currently.