Sinclair Vehicles poor reception given to the C5 by the press and public meant that these models would never reach production. In August 1985, Hoover, the manufacturer of the C5, announced that production would be stopped due to a financial dispute with Sinclair Vehicles. The following month, Sinclair Vehicles were renamed as TPD Ltd. On 15 October 1985, it was announced that TPD were in receivership and the company entered voluntary liquidation on 4 November 1985. Sinclair Vehicles Sinclair Vehicles Ltd was a company formed in March 1983 by Sir Clive Sinclair as a focus for his work in the field of
Sinclair C5 selling some of his own shares in Sinclair Research to fund a separate company that would focus on electric vehicles. A £12 million deal was reached in March 1983, of which £8.3 million was used to fund the establishment of the new Sinclair Vehicles company. Sinclair recruited Barrie Wills, a veteran former employee of the DeLorean Motor Company, to lead Sinclair Vehicles as its managing director. Although Wills initially expressed scepticism about the viability of an electric vehicle – his twenty-five years in the motor industry had convinced him that an electric car was never going to happen – Sinclair