Cargiant owner Geoff Warren has spoken of plans to transform the business’s London headquarters into a specialist electric vehicle (EV) centre.

The ID50’s second-placed independent car supermarket operation is looking to drive turnover with the help of developments at the facility on Hythe Road, West London, amid stalled plans to redevelop the site.

Warren was speaking to the London Evening Standard newspaper this week, following publication of 2018 annual financial results which revealed an 11.7% decline in turnover, from £538.6 million to £475.8m, but pre-tax profits improved 10% to £41.6m.

Despite a reported increase in turnover during the first eight months of 2019, he told the newspaper that he wants to wants to start increasing turnover potential from the used car retailer’s large home in Hythe Road in west London following a sales drop and a political dispute.

Warren said he wants to create “a large dedicated electric car retail centre to help Londoners make the switch from fossil-fuelled vehicles, which will be important following the introduction of the expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone in 2021”.

Yesterday (October 23) The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced that he was opening up the capital’s £2,000 vehicle scrappage allowance scheme to low income and disabled Londoners.

London has already adopted a target of meeting World Health Organisation (WHO) air quality guidelines by 2030 and the planned expansion of the scrappage scheme comes exactly two years before the planned expansion of the mayor’s Ultra Low Emission Zone up to the North and South Circular roads in 2021.

The Evening Standard reported that Cargiant’s decision was influenced by a victory in a long-running dispute with the Old Oak Park Development Corporation, which wants to build 26,500 homes at the future interchange of HS2 and Crossrail, however.

The OPDC wants Cargiant to relocate.

However, an interim planning report for the government last month said the retailer’s land, which is included in draft plans for the development, should be removed, the Evening Standard reported.