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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.

Lexus CT 200h: Price & models

The Lexus CT 200h UK Price & Models revealed Although it seems like it’s been around forever, the Lexus CT 200h was only officially debuted at the Paris Motor Show last month, although it’s more than a year since we speculated that the Lexus Premium Compact Concept would become the Lexus CT. Still, Lexus has got there and they are ready to roll the CT 200h out in the UK. We got European prices a few weeks back, which frankly were a bit stronger than we’d expected for what Lexus had said would be a 1-Series competitor.

New Opel/Vauxhall Astra saloon revealed – but not for the UK

The new Astra with a boot has been revealed but it’s not heading for the UK. It will, however, be offered in Germany and Spain. The hatchback has taken over the car world in recent years when it comes to family cars (although we could see the crossover / compact SUV supplant it before long), which has meant the demise of the traditional saloon, certainly in the UK market.