LAST AUTO NEWS – AMPERA BLOW FOR UK
Last Auto account – Ampera draft for UK Takeover could beggarly electric car is congenital away as Magna has yet to adjudge on plant
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British Vauxhall workers could be bouncing goodbye to the electric Ampera – afore assembly has even started.
Industry experts accept told Auto Express that GM Europe’s accepted takeover by Canadian auto locations maker Magna may beggarly the bung is pulled on affairs to body the new car at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port branch in Cheshire.
Dr Peter Wells, of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research in Cardiff, said that if Magna ante the car as a low-volume alcove model, assembly could be bigger ill-fitted to a abate European plant.
â??No one doubts Ellesmere Port’s adeptness to body the Ampera, but whether it will in fact get it is addition question,â? he explained.
â??Magna is acceptable to be an artistic buyer and could abutment greener cars, but its decisions will be disqualified by economics – and authoritative the Ampera at a abate bulb may be cheaper.â?
A Vauxhall agent argued the takeover would not adapt the plant’s affairs of architecture the car, however, and that a accommodation would be fabricated either way by the end of the year.
But acceptable account as Astra SUV is go
Providing GM Europe’s approaching is assured, there are affluence ofexciting new models in the pipeline. And none added so than this – anSUV alternative of the accessible Astra.
Poised to yield on Ford’sKuga, the 4×4 will affection the all-wheel-drive technology fromhigh-power variants of the Insignia. This is based on Saab’s XWD, whichdiverts torque amid the foreground and rear axles depending on area it’s
eeded.
Engines will appear from the accepted Astra, and continueVauxhall’s charge to small-capacity, forced-induction motors with a
ew 138bhp 1.4-litre turbo.
A best of three added petrolunits, giving amid 99bhp and 178bhp, could be offered, while fourdiesels bear from 94bhp to 158bhp.
The SUV will access in2011, afterwards the three and five-door Astra bear and Sports Tourerestate, which are due in 2010. Also set for a 2011 admission is a smallerCorsa SUV, advised to attempt with the new Skoda Yeti and establishedFiat Panda 4×4.
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