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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.

Fifth Gear Tonight: Porsche Boxster S, Ford Focus ST & the new Audi S8 (video)

A new series of Fifth Gear starts tonight with Vicki B-H racing a French Jet in a new Porsche Boxster S, Jason Plato testing the new Audi S8 & Jonny in the Ford Focus ST. Those nice people at Fifth Gear have been in touch asking if we’d like to run trailer information for the new Fifth Gear Series, just as we do for Top Gear. Why not, we thought?

2015 Mercedes C 63 AMG (& AMG S) Saloon & Estate revealed

The 2015 Mercedes-AMG C 63 blows in with up to 503bhp It’s nine months since the new Mercedes C-Class was revealed, and it’s a cracker. But if the regular C-Class leaves you feeling a bit underpowered you now have the option of the BMW M3-bashing 2015 Mercedes C 63 AMG for some real get up and go. Actually – with Mercedes moving AMG more front and centre – you now have the option of the Mercedes-AMG C 63, with the name change mirroring the nomenclature for the new Mercedes-AMG GT.