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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.

Fisker Karma drives Laguna Seca

The Fisker Karma out testing at Laguna Seca But unhappy as we are at Cars UK with the world’s obsession with all things green – and hybrid / electric cars in general – even we have to admit that some of the work that’s going on does impress us. The Tesla Roadster is a great achievement – if madly expensive for what it is (an electric Lotus) – and the work Koenigsegg are doing with the Quant is very exciting. But one company that is efficiently going about putting together a workable, high performance car is Fisker, who have been working on their electric saloon car – The Fisker Karma – for less than two years.

Jaguar F-Type UK public debut

Jaguar are giving the new F-Type its first UK public outing at the Lord Mayor’s Show in November - driven by Jessica Ennis. But that’s about to change as Jaguar has decided to debut their new sports car at this year’s Lord Mayor’s Show in London on 10th November. But just to make sure there’s an added bit of kudos for the new F-Type as it drives along London’s City Streets, Jaguar has roped in Olympic golden girl Jessica Ennis to cast a bit of the residual fairy dust from this year’s summer of sport with a photocall before the show and Jess behind the wheel as the Lord Mayor’s procession takes to the streets.