THE boss of the world's largest commercial electric vehicle manufacturer believes the North-East could be home to a new industry thanks to growth in the market.

Smiths Electric Vehicles (SEV), on the Team Valley industrial estate, Gateshead, yesterday announced £3m of orders destined for North America, Eastern Europe and Australia.

Engineering company the Tanfield Group, based near Stanley, County Durham, bought SEV last October for £3.2m.

Roy Stanley, Tanfield managing director, is convinced the market is about to experience a boom - and that the North-East is well placed to capitalise on it.

He said: "I genuinely believe that this could be not just a business for the North-East, but an industry."

"It could be the best story to come out of the North-East since Nissan."

Electric vehicles operate at slower speeds than conventional road-going vans and can only travel a limited distance before the battery needs charging.

Mr Stanley is hoping SEV can also target companies whose fleets of conventional vehicles already operate within those limitations.

The market is growing in areas such as refuse collection and airport apron transport, as the Government puts pressure on industry to cut pollution from exhaust emissions.

"The market is already there," said Mr Stanley.

"Royal Mail has 28,000 vehicles on the roads and 25 per cent do less than 30 miles in a day.

"A quarter of all parcel deliveries every day are made within the City of London."

The export orders SEV announced yesterday include electric vehicles for US airports and the K13 aerial ladder platform, manufactured by its spin-off company, Aerial Access.

A worker can stand in the basket of the K13 and operate controls to manoeuvre the lift in any direction.

Mr Stanley said: "The reason the K13 is so successful is the product is recognised as better than anything else on the market.

"In terms of exports, we are just scratching the surface."

He believes more orders can be won across the Atlantic - the US aerial access market alone last year was worth $3.3bn.

His conviction is supported by some of the City's leading investors.

Yesterday, more than a dozen who have already invested in the company travelled to the North-East for a tour of the business.

Since Tanfield acquired SEV, orders have grown by more than £2m and it began this year with the healthiest order book in its history, valued at nearly £9m.

The company anticipates growth of about 30 per cent this year and expects to announce further orders in the coming months.