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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.

New Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible revealed

The soft top version of the new Stingray has been revealed – the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible – ahead of a debut at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. But aside from issuing the two photos of the new convertible Stingray, Chevy isn’t giving anything away ahead of its debut at Geneva in a few days. But it’s not much of a stretch to expect the same 444bhp 6.2 litre under the bonnet as the regular Stingray, enough to get the Stingray to 62mph in under 4 seconds and no doubt the convertible just a shade behind.

Surprise Euro NCAP results released

THE BEST cars in class for safety have been announced by Euro NCAP - and there are some surprise results. Although not on sale in the UK yet, the Chinese-built Qoros 3 Sedan was the safest car tested by Euro NCAP all year. It is also the first car built in China to ever gain a five-star score in the tough crash tests of Euro NCAP.