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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.

15 secrets about the new baby Jaguar saloon

The Jaguar C-X17 dominated the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show and was, for many, the car of the show. Equally headline-grabbing was Jaguar’s confirmation the first car to use the new all-aluminium architecture beneath the C-X17 concept car will not be a crossover SUV, but a new Jaguar rival to the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4. That’s right – at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, it was finally confirmed the new baby Jaguar is coming!

Production Peugeot RCZ R revealed ahead of Goodwood FoS debut

Production Peugeot RCZ R (pictured) revealed Peugeot promised a more powerful RCZ – the RCZ R – at the Paris Motor Show last year, and subsequently confirmed it would arrive at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Now, with the FoS kicking off today with the Moving Motor Show, Peugeot has revealed photos of the production RCZ R – painted in sporty red – and given us some proper specs. As we already knew, the RCZ R makes use of the PSA/BMW 1.6 litre turbo petrol the regular RCZ already has, but in the R’s case Peugeot has managed to turn the wick up to 11 and delivered 270bhp.