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.

Silverstone: the defining moments from 50 British grand prixs

By Tom Clarkson Motoring Issues 03 July 2014 11:00 1948 Silverstone’s transformation from a World War II bomber station into a race circuit began in August 1948, when the Royal Automobile Club took out a one-year lease on RAF Silverstone. Under the stewardship of local farmer James Wilson Brown, the RAC International Grand Prix was staged on 2 October, using similar regulations to those that shaped pre-war grand prix racing. The track layout comprised the airbase’s perimeter roads, with straw bales and ropes protecting the piggery and the crops in the middle of the circuit.

Mercedes GLA goes in to production in Germany

The Mercedes GLA (pictured) goes in to production The new Mercedes GLA – Mercedes’ latest spin-off from the A Class – arrived at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September as an urban SUV come Crossover, extending Mercedes reach in the premium compact sector with a serious competitor in the urban SUV market. With the growing fondness for high-riding cars – and something that’s a bit butch too – the SUV/Crossover take on the Mercedes A Class is a sound way to go and now, with production starting in Germany this week of the new GLA, Mercedes is getting close to having the GLA in customers’ hands. The first GLAs to get in to the hands of customers will probably be the GLA Edition 1 – a launch model with plenty of toys – but the model that will perhaps be most interesting is the GLA 45 AMG, with the promise of the same rufty-tufty compact SUV goodness as the rest of the range but with the 4WD platform and high performance 2.0 litre Turbo from the A 45 AMG.