All of LDV 1,000-strong workforce are shareholders

The Birmingham-based firm said the new positions would be created at its plant in Drews Lane, Washwood Heath, if sales of the new model hit an annual sales target of 50,000 vehicles within the next four years.

LDV also announced plans to transport recently acquired manufacturing equipment, valued at �125m, from redundant Daewoo facilities in Poland and Korea to its Birmingham plant.

The logistical operation will see tooling and assets weighing 6,250 tons moved to Drews Lane over a two-month period.

A huge space has already been allocated at the plant to accommodate the equipment and the production lines for the new model.

Prototype vehicles

The equipment is on its way to Birmingham six years after LDV first started talks with Korean manufacturer Daewoo about the joint manufacture of a new light commercial model.

But Daewoo collapsed in 2000 and it has taken LDV until now to arrange buying the defunct firm's tools and intellectual property rights.

LDV, which currently employs 1,000 people and produces about 250 cars each week, hopes to double its workforce and quadruple its output.

The company's chief executive Allan Amey said: "We are delighted to achieve this significant milestone in our planning for the launch of the new vehicle range.

"With the completion of this important stage we can focus our energies on the installation and commissioning of our new facilities.

"LDV engineers, who have been evaluating prototype vehicles for the past 18 months, are delighted with all aspects of performance and testing.

"We know that when we launch next year we will deliver class-leading vehicles across our total product range."

The new model, which will initially be for export to Europe, is expected to be unveiled later in the year.