Volvo Penta 270 275 280 285 Intermediate Suspension Fork And Reverse Lock on 2040-parts.com

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.

Land Rover Freelander (2012) facelift pictures

Yes, the sleek wannabe-coupe Range Rover Evoque may be stealing all the headlines for Land Rover at the moment, but the Freelander remains the core entry-level model in the Land Rover range. For the 2013 model year, Land Rover is giving the car an exterior freshen-up, a more upmarket interior, and new trim options. It'll be shown at the Moscow motor show from 29 August 2012.

Car Design News website maintenance

Every now and then we have to do a little back room maintenance on the good ship Car Design News and today is one of those days. So if you plan on visiting us later today from around 12am (GMT) and can't access what you're looking for, don't panic, the downtime should only take an hour as our servers are receiving an upgrade. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.