By August, Danville will be the only place in the U.S. that manufactures hand-built electric sports cars as RBW EV Cars, based in the United Kingdom, opens its first overseas factory.
To break into the U.S. market, RBW needed the help of a Danville native.
RBW has only had a presence in the city since August 2024, when it announced its first U.S. location, promising to create 144 jobs and invest $8 million in a manufacturing facility.
But Peyton Sellers’ family has lived in Danville, on the same property, since 1946.
About a year and a half ago, Sellers was approached by Matt Rowe, the Pittsylvania County economic development director, about helping to attract a British auto manufacturer to the area.
Sellers is both a professional stock car driver and a local business owner with a background in the automotive industry. He was immediately interested in RBW when he was introduced to the company — and they were interested in him.
In November, the company named Sellers its first director of U.S. operations.
RBW was already building new luxury electric vehicles, modeled after classic British sports cars from the 1960s and 1970s, at its facility in Lichfield, England.
“They needed to figure out how to scale from one or two cars a month to seven to 15 cars a month,” Sellers said. “They saw an opportunity in Danville to help get to that finish line.”
Today, the Danville facility in Cane Creek Centre industrial park is less than six months from becoming operational. Buildout of the factory is underway, hiring has begun and local partnerships are being formed.
From the U.K. to Virginia
RBW found Danville through a recommendation from another company, said CEO Peter Swain.
Overfinch, another British automotive company, has had a presence in a Danville industrial park since 2016.
“We were recommended to Virginia and the Danville area by Overfinch, actually,” Swain said. “We share a showroom with Overfinch in London, so that’s how that connection came across.”
After visiting the city, “I just fell in love with the place,” Swain said.
It was primarily the community that drew him to Danville, he said.
“Unless you come into the area from the outside, I don’t think you can feel the extent of the warmth there,” Swain said.
RBW and Danville were also a good match geographically and culturally.
The city is only a few hours from the coast, which makes logistical sense for a British company shipping in supplies, though Swain said the company plans to use local suppliers whenever possible.
The city’s history as an old mill town lends itself to the production of luxury cars, Swain said.
“The seats that we make here are leather,” Swain said. “It’s not going to be hard for Danville to make these items because they used to make beautiful garments, so it’s the same DNA. … There’s a great affiliation there with those skills, and we’re going to bring a tiny piece of that [industry] back.”
The factory will produce the RBW’s first left-hand drive electric classic sports cars — Roadster and GT models — for the U.S. market. The Roadster has a starting price of $139,000 and the GT starts at $151,000, according to a news release.
Finding the right people
It was always Swain’s intent to hire from within the Danville community, he said.
This was partly because an American would be more familiar with things like U.S. labor laws. But mostly, it was because RBW wanted to embed itself in Danville, Swain said.
“If you want to be truly ensconced in the community, you’ve got to go with the community,” he said. “How many companies come in and put their own people in and they don’t adapt? We wanted to be part of the community.”
Swain said he was impressed by Sellers’ experience in the automotive industry and business acumen.
Sellers holds a place in the NASCAR Hall of Fame and won the national championship of NASCAR’s weekly racing series in 2005 and 2021. He won his seventh Late Model Stock championship at the South Boston speedway in September 2024, tying him for the most title wins of all time at that track.
He also leads Sellers Brothers in Danville, a contracting company which for a time built around 700 trucks a year for step-van manufacturer Morgan Olson. Sellers will continue to run his company alongside this new role.
“He knew about building new vehicles, which was a bonus because that can be a tricky game,” Swain said. “I thought it was great. We had someone who knew how to build vehicles and a community that was activity seeking companies like us, who are going to employ people for technical jobs.”
RBW plans to hire employees locally and use mostly local suppliers, said Sellers, who is now overseeing the Danville facility and its maintenance team.
The company is coordinating with Danville Community College to create a program at the school’s automotive lab, training students with specific RBW parts and pieces, he said.
“Our goal is about 45 to 50 employees by the end of the first year that we’re in production,” Sellers said. “And we’re not just waiting on the building to be done, we’re actually currently working on building a few cars … and we hope to have cars on the assembly line by the middle of the summer.”
This facility will also assemble electric vehicle system units for Spirit EV, an electric vehicle design and integration company under the RBW umbrella.
RBW is “a piece in the puzzle” of Danville’s economic rebirth, Sellers said. He’s seen the city transform from a tobacco- and textile-driven economy to a manufacturing hub with ties to the EV industry.
Lately, Danville has worked to fill its industrial parks with small, niche companies, he said.
“For so long, we were Dan River Mills and Goodyear,” Sellers said. “As we see those companies going away or doing mass layoffs, it puts us in a chaotic place. … But now, we won’t see such a big economic impact if one company does leave.”
These cars will be sold nationwide, Sellers said, and RBW hopes to use the Danville facility to help launch other U.S. initiatives, like putting Spirit EV systems in American cars.
“Our next venture will either be a Ford or GM. It’ll be something more U.S.-based, like the Ford Mustang convertible or the classic Chevy Camaro,” Sellers said. “There’s a lot of opportunities right now for us to take on different models and makes to put our system in.”
RBW has U.K.-based partners that want to move into the Danville facility with them, he said.
“We hope to bring our suppliers here,” Sellers said. “I think we’re going to see a hub around Danville and this area. An EV village, that’s what we’ve named it.”