Civic and government leaders desperate to assure a future for Vauxhall plant

Efforts to save Ellesmere Port’s Vauxhall car production plant have been stepped up with the future of the 59-year-old site hanging precariously in the balance.
Parent company Stellantis is mulling options for the site, which employs around 1,000 staff and supports many thousands more in the supply chain, with a decision expected in the next 48 hours.
A board meeting of Dutch-based Stellantis broke up last night (February 24) with no outcome on its future which has been placed into sharp focus following the UK’s exit from the European Union and the UK Government’s plans to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars from 2030.
Stellantis has made it clear it expects the Government to provide support for the plant’s future in terms of electric car production and post-Brexit clarity. In a statement it said: “We expect an eventual binding commitment by the UK government in the near future and will act accordingly.
“In the meanwhile no investment decision will be made.”
Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council, Cllr Louise Gittins, told TheBusinessDesk.com: “We have been working closely with the Vauxhall team, the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership and government officials over the past few weeks to do all we can to secure the future of the plant.
“This site plays an important role in the economy of the entire region, and securing its future is vital to safeguard hundreds of jobs in Ellesmere Port, and across the supply chain.
“We have put together a strong programme of local investment to support the transition to low carbon production, and I have also written to the Secretary of State to call for significant national support.”
Cllr Louise Gittins
She added: “We stand ready to work alongside the local team and parent company Stellantis, following what we hope will be a positive commitment to future investment.”
Three options are open to the car manufacturing group: Continue manufacturing the family hatchback at Ellesmere Port, probably until the end of the decade; move production to a new factory but begin the manufacture of a new electric model in Cheshire; or close the factory completely.
The Government has previously pledged its “unbounded commitment” to Vauxhall’s two UK plants, in Ellesmere Port and Luton.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has held talks with the car maker over how it could support continuation of car production in Cheshire, the most recent being on Monday night involving government officials as well as company management and representatives of the local authority.
Bosses at Stellantis had declared that their decision on the plant could depend on what kind of a deal the UK was able to strike with Europe following Brexit.
Fears were raised for the plant’s future last month when Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares raised concerns about a shift in government policy that questioned its viability.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last year that the government wants to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK from 2030 – with the exception of some hybrids – which is a much tighter timetable than other nations.
Mr Tavares, speaking at an event to mark the creation of Stellantis through the $50bn merger of Vauxhall’s parent company, PSA Group, with the Italian-American company FiatChrysler, said: “If governments create situations that destroy the business model, we stop investing, of course.
“If we are told that in 2030 internal combustion engines cannot be sold in the UK – which we respect as a decision from the country – then we are not going to invest in internal combustion engines any more. Because that makes no sense.
“If you change brutally the rules, and if you restrict the rules for business, then there is, at one point in time a problem.
“The more we put stringent objectives on industry, the more you get close to that limit.”
Ellesmere Port, known as the home of the Astra model, is at a critical point in car production. The current Astra comes to the end of its life cycle later this year.
The group had indicated that a new generation model could be placed with Ellesmere Port, as well as in its Ruesselsheim plant in Germany.
But Stellantis had warned that the Cheshire site’s future depended on where it made the new generation of electric vehicles, which would hinge on the Government’s support of the UK car sector.
Mr Tavares said: “It depends also on the UK government’s willingness to protect some kind of automotive industry in its own country, which is about their strategy.”
The Vauxhall plant opened on a former RAF site in 1962, building models such as the Vauxhall Viva and Chevette, before producing the Astra for the UK market, and rebadged as Opel for export to the European continents.