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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.

Hyundai shows its Blue2 hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicle in Seoul

Hyundai Motor Co. has unveiled a hydrogen fuel cell concept vehicle called the Blue2 that takes the South Korean automaker deeper into alternative-drivetrain territory. Hyundai is banking on the car to propel it to a leadership role in the race to commercialize fuel cell electric vehicles, a contest joined notably by such Japanese rivals as Honda Motor Co.

Aston Martin adds glamour to Lord Mayor's Show

FAMOUS British brand Aston Martin brought some extra glamour to the capital at the weekend as the firm took part in the historic Lord Mayor's Show. A selection of its sports cars joined the three-and-a-half-mile-long cavalcade at the invitation of The Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers of London, which selected Aston Martin to participate in its centenary year. The Aston Martins, which included a Vanquish Coupe dressed in the unmistakable Union Jack-inspired livery of the UK Government’s GREAT Britain campaign, made their way through the capital’s packed streets as an estimated half million spectators looked on.