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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 Range Rover Sport takes on Pikes Peak – and wins

The new Range Rover Sport takes on the Pikes Peak Hillclimb Pikes Peak is an unforgiving Hill Climb, spanning 12.42 miles and 156 corners, rising to 4,300 meters above sea level with oxygen levels at the top down to just 58 per cent of those at sea level, making it incredibly hard for both man and machinery to function. But despite the challenge, Land Rover has taken the new Range Rover Sport up Pikes Peak in a new record time for a production SUV, covering the 12.42 mile course of twists and turns in just 12m 35.61s at an average speed of 59.17mph. You won’t be surprised to learn that Land Rover choose to use the new RRS with the 5.0 litre Supercharged engine for the record run, but apart from fitting a roll cage and harness seatbelts, the Sport had no modifications at all.

Cars Cause Global Warming – is the myth about to be debunked?

Is the global warming myth about to be debunked? Our views are well known on the whole climate change and ‘Cars kill the Planet’ ethos that has become received wisdom in the last decade. It isn’t a popular view and, in the eyes of many, is akin to being a holocaust denier.