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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.

A new batch of Ford Mustang Cobra Jets is on the way to racers

The 40th Anniversary 2008 Mustang Cobra Jet, announced about a year ago, has been such a huge success for Ford Racing that the company will build a 2010 model, available later this year. Like the '08 CJ, just 50 examples of the turnkey race car will be built, the minimum number to homologate the car for competition in National Hot Rod Association events. An '08 Cobra Jet won its inaugural event in the Stock Eliminator Class in February at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., just as the original 1968 Cobra Jet did.

Renault Zoe sets new electric car record for distance travelled

The Renault Zoe EV has set a new world record for distance travelled in an electric car in 24 hours – 1005 miles. It seems Renault are determined to prove that an electric car – in this case the Renault Zoe EV – can travel sensible distances in a sensible period of time. So they set out to run a pair of production spec Renault Zoes round the Aubevoye speed ring in Normandy for a full twenty four hours with the aim of breaking the record for distance travelled in an electric car in that time (yes, there’s a world record for everything these days).