THE man who founded Kwik-Fit and was responsible for selling the business to manufacturing giant Ford for £1 billion, has taken a major stake in ScootElectric, the eco-friendly scooter business.

Sir Tom Farmer has taken a 17% stake in the electric scooter provider and has formally become its exclusive Scottish distributor through his new business start-up Farmer Autocare, a car repairer.

The deal is good news for ScootElectric, which is hoping to sell 1,500 scooters this year. Farmer is a keen advocate of electric scooters and believes motorcycle delivery fleets could convert to electric models.

He said: ‘This is the perfect solution to the growing traffic problems we face in our major towns and will be particularly attractive to commuters, corporate fleets, local authorities and short delivery companies such as couriers and pizza delivery.

‘An electric scooter with zero emissions, which moves up to 30mph without the clatter of a noisy engine, is very low-cost to run.’

Electric scooters have plenty of benefits – they cost on average 7p to charge from empty, are exempt from road tax and do not incur congestion charges in London.

Farmer added: ‘The appeal for me is not that the electric scooter will replace the car, but could become an attractive addition to the car.

‘Congestion charging, parking fees and difficulty in finding parking make trips around town difficult.’