A decision to build the new Ampera plug-in hybrid car at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant, together with a commitment to continue building commercial vans at Luton, could help create between 400 and 500 more British jobs.
The Ampera is due to be launched in Europe in 2013 and Vauxhall managing director Duncan Aldred said a decision on where it will be built will be made early next year.
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“We can make a very good case for getting production of this car at Ellesmere Port,” he said. “We have the capacity and an excellent workforce along with great union relations.”
Ellesmere Port is a key plant for the Opel/Vauxhall Astra and currently builds five-door hatchback and wagon variants in both right and left hand drive.
Vauxhall’s parent General Motors Europe has already announced a commitment to renew its commercial vehicle joint venture with Renault which currently assembles some Vivaro and Trafic vans at Luton.
Where these will be built in future has yet to be finalised but Aldred is hopeful production will remain at Luton. He is also keen to continue making the Astravan, a uniquely popular British model, at Ellesmere Port.
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By GlobalDataAldred said the new Astra Sport Tourer estate [wagon] model, launched today at the Paris show, is an important addition to the assembly line.
“This model will be exclusively built at Ellesmere Port and 90% of the 140,000 units we make next year will go for export which is goods news for the British economy.”
Further good news for Britain has been Vauxhall’s move to source more components from UK suppliers. Aldred added: “In the past few months we have spent GBP140m more with British suppliers than we were doing last year – business we have moved from foreign suppliers and we are looking to add more.”
Vauxhall, he said, was certainly doing its bit for the economy, but he would like more help from the government, particularly in winning the Ampera business.
“There is already a commitment to provide incentives to buy environmentally-friendly vehicles which is good, but the government needs to go further. For example, we do not know how long these incentives will last – we do not want to see them cut back as they were with LPG fuels.
“We had a whole range of LPG capable vehicles but the bottom fell out of the market when the government pulled the plug on grants. The new government says it wants to be at the forefront of environmentally-friendly technology so we are hopeful that we will get further backing.”
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