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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.

In NYC's cab contest, vans aim to be seen

Nissan North America Inc., Ford Motor Co. and a little-known Turkish vehicle manufacturer are in a three-way competition to supply the next generation of taxis to New York City. The winner will snare a large fleet deal: more than 13,000 vehicles delivered over the next three to five years, with a 10-year exclusive agreement from the city.

Ford Ranger T6, EcoSport crossover spied in Denver

Apparently Ford wanted to give a few of its offerings a mile-high workout. That would explain why Autoweek reader Brendan Bartolo was able to catch a fleet of four vehicles parked, hoods open, in a Denver hotel parking lot. Full-body camouflage can't disguise a pair of 2013 Ford Fusion sedans, but we have no way of knowing what new technologies may or may not lurk under their conventional sheet metal.