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Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.

Audi TT RS Plus (2012) first official pictures

Audi has unveiled a go-faster version of the TT. As if the regular TT RS isn't fast enough, here's the new 2012 TT RS Plus – a tuned version of the coupe and roadster with the wick turned up to 355bhp. It's based on the regular RS model, which means the five-cylinder turbo engine continues.

Range Rover Evoque gets price drop for 2013

Land Rover has sold more than 6,000 Range Rover Evoque SUVs so far this year, making it the company's second-best seller behind the Range Rover Sport. To keep the momentum going, Land Rover has lowered the base price for the small SUV by about $2,000 for 2013, to $41,995. That's the price for the five-door Pure model, which eliminates the laminated-glass roof in favor of aluminum.