Owner Stellantis’s decision to invest will safeguard 1,500 jobs at the factory Vauxhall’s owner, Stellantis, will make electric vans at its factory in Luton from 2025, helping to secure the future of 1,500 UK jobs at the plant. The Luton factory will produce medium-sized electric vans for the Vauxhall, Citroën, Peugeot and Fiat Professional brands, Stellantis announced on Thursday ..read more

Investment by Stellantis has turned the Vauxhall plant into the UK’s first dedicated to producing electric vehicles at scale In nearly 60 years of making cars Ellesmere Port’s Vauxhall factory had come close to the end several times, said the Unite union convener John Cooper, standing beside the body of an electric van on the production line. Last-minute negotiations saved the plant each time, but it was a close-run thing. Things have changed now: on Thursday the site began production as the UK’s first factory dedicated purely to producing electric vehicles at scale. It is a landmark moment in ..read more

Roger Thorpe, 80, a mechanic and vintage car enthusiast, has run the workshop in Castleton since 1967. The building was constructed in 1895 for the Hope Valley railway and converted to a garage in the 1930s ..read more

Ford, Stellantis and Jaguar Land Rover have criticised extra costs under trade and cooperation agreement Ford, Vauxhall owner and JLR call for UK to renegotiate Brexit deal Comment: UK needs to switch on to the car crisis Three of the world’s largest carmakers have told the British government it needs to renegotiate its Brexit deal with the EU to change rules they say threaten UK electric vehicle production. The Vauxhall maker, Stellantis, has warned it will be unable to keep its commitment to make electric vehicles in Britain without the changes, while Ford has called them a “pointless cost ..read more

Stellantis says it can no longer meet trade rules on sourcing of parts in Britain or EU after rise in raw material costs Business live – latest updates The Vauxhall and Fiat manufacturer Stellantis has urged the government to renegotiate rules in the Brexit deal that it says could force it to shut some of its UK operations, putting thousands of jobs at risk. The world’s fourth-biggest carmaker, which also produces Citroën and Peugeot vehicles, said only two years ago that the future of its electric car plants in Ellesmere Port and Luton were safe ..read more

Future EV designs offer drivers more space and leisure, with fewer parts making production more sustainable Take any petrol car sold today and show it to a mechanic working on a Ford Model T 100 years ago and there is a fairly good chance they would understand roughly how it works. An internal combustion engine at the front turns the wheels, carrying a driver behind a steering wheel, some passengers and luggage. The advent of electric cars changes everything. No longer will the shape of the car be defined so rigidly by bulky engines, exhaust gas handling or driveshafts. At the same time, digit ..read more

Manufacturers hit by shortages of both staff and semiconductors as a result of the pandemic The number of cars rolling off UK production lines last month slumped to the lowest June level in almost 70 years, as car manufacturers were hit by shortages of both staff and semiconductors. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said just over 69,000 cars were produced in UK car plants last month, the lowest June total since 1953, although this excludes June 2020 when factories were slowly getting back up to speed after the first lockdown ..read more

Stellantis plan will secure jobs of 1,000 workers as well as 3,000 in supply chain Vauxhall owner Stellantis has announced that it will invest £100m to build electric cars and vans at Ellesmere Port, in Cheshire, in a move that will make it the first large plant in the UK dedicated exclusively to electric vehicles. It will build four electric vans and their passenger car equivalents at the UK factory under Stellantis’s Vauxhall, Opel, Peugeot and Citroën brands, replacing the Astra family car which will be built in Germany instead ..read more

Stellantis poised to announce move after talks with UK government over financial support for Wirral factory The Vauxhall owner Stellantis is poised to announce plans to build a new electric van at its Ellesmere Port plant, securing the immediate future of the site. The company has been in talks with the UK government over financial support for further investment in the factory on the Wirral in north-west England, which has been considered in jeopardy since the Brexit vote ..read more

Campaign group says tax bill for main service company could be wiped out under ‘super-deduction’ policy Amazon could “entirely wipe out” the tax bill of its main UK service company by taking advantage of the chancellor’s £25bn “super-deduction” tax break, according to analysis by a tax fairness campaign group. The super-deduction, announced by Rishi Sunak in the budget on Wednesday, will allow companies such as Amazon to offset 130% of investment spending on plant and machinery against profits for the next two years, starting next month. The chancellor explained that if a company spent £10m on ..read more