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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.

Algae-derived biodiesel blend hits San Francisco-area gas stations

Environmentally conscious drivers may have a new way of fueling up: a diesel fuel blend that consists of 20 percent algae-derived biofuel and 80 percent regular diesel arrived at four gas stations in the San Francisco Bay area earlier this week. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the fuel retails for $4.25 per gallon—the same cost as conventional diesel in the region. B20 is billed as compatible with any diesel-powered vehicle.

Jaguar F-Type public debut at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Jaguar are giving the F-Type development prototype its first public outing at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It’s less than three months since we discovered that the C-X16 would be the new Jaguar F-Type, but there’s been plenty of news on the spiritual successor to the E-Type since then, even though it’s the best part of a year before the F-Type launches. We know that the F-Type will come not only with the new supercharged V6 but that there will also be a V8 supercharged version of the F-Type on offer which, if it gets the full fat 550bhp version, will be a very swift cat indeed.