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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.

Toyota & Lexus news at 2009 Tokyo motor show

The vibe on the Toyota stand is subdued, yet upbeat at the same time. They're chuffed to bits with their new products on show, but we can't help remembering Japan's – and the world's – premier car maker's $4.9 billion loss last year. And it's forecast to lose a similar amount in 2009.

Hearst moves Road & Track

New York publishing house Hearst says it will move the Road & Track magazine editorial offices from Newport Beach, Calif., to Ann Arbor, Mich., home of its other auto-magazine title, Car and Driver. Additionally, Larry Webster has been named editor in chief, replacing Matt DeLorenzo. Webster had been automotive editor of Hearst's Popular Mechanics since January 2010 and before that was the Detroit editor for Popular Mechanics.