The latest British-built Vauxhall Astra has rolled off the line at Ellesmere Port as the Cheshire factory prepares to transform into an electric vehicle manufacturing hub.
From early next year, the plant will produce the Vauxhall Combo-e and its sister van, the Citroën ë-Berlingo and Peugeot e-partner.
This follows an announcement last year that Vauxhall’s parent company Stellantis would invest £100m in the site to support its transformation.
Ellesmere Port thus becomes the first Stellantis factory to produce only EVs.
It will also build the passenger variants of the above vans: Opel/Vauxhall Combo-e Life, Citroën ë-Berlingo and Peugeot e-Rifter.
The last Astra built at Ellesmere Port was an Astra Sport Tourer 1.2 Turbo IRS Nav Manual in red.
The plant, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, has built more than four million Astras since the debut of the first generation in November 1981. The Astra will now be built at Opel’s Rüsselsheim site in Germany.
Vauxhall Managing Director Paul Willcox said: “Over the past 60 years, Ellesmere Port has grown into one of Britain’s great car factories, producing some of the most popular cars on the roads across generations.
“With the closure of an era, we now look forward to a whole new electric era at Ellesmere, with the site becoming the first Stellantis factory to produce only electric vehicles.
“Vauxhall is rapidly moving towards an electric future, and I am delighted to see the next generation of British-made Vauxhall electric vehicles.”
Vauxhall will only sell electric vehicles from 2028 and said “the transformation at Ellesmere Port will ensure the UK remains at the forefront of electric vehicle manufacturing”.
The factory upgrade is also part of Stellantis’ commitment to becoming a carbon-neutral company globally by 2038 and to halving its carbon footprint by 2030, based on data from 2021.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-04-07 07:01:23
