Crunch talks are going on to secure the future of Vauxhall’s Ellesmere port plant continue after no proper decision was taken on Wednesday.
It was initiated after the meeting with Vauxhall’s parent company become a huge failure on its fate. More than one thousand people work at the site with many more in the supply chain.
Talks to secure Vauxhall Ellesmere port plant carry on.
In the past six weeks, the business secretary has met the management of the parent company more than 3 times.
The most recent meeting took place on Monday night, with talks involving government officials along with company management and representatives of the local authority.
A government spokesperson said. “We are committed to ensuring the UK continues to be one of the best locations in the world for automotive manufacturing, and we’re doing all we can to protect and create jobs while securing a competitive future for the sector,”
It was not very long Mr. Tavares the head of the Parent organization stated that “If governments create situations that destroy the business model, we stop investing of course”, Mr. Tavares has also warned that it will no longer invest in pure diesel or petrol cars at its Ellesmere Port plant.
Tavares opinioned that the future of the Cheshire plant depended on where his company, Stellantis, decided to make the new generation of electric vehicles.
He said a decision would be made in the next few weeks and depend on the UK government’s support of the car sector. The future of the Ellesmere Port plant is far from certain.
It currently builds an old model of the Vauxhall Astra, due to be superseded by a new version next year. That new model will be built in two plants – one of them at Ruesselsheim, in Germany. The parent company had previously said it hoped to make it in Ellesmere Port as well.
Mr. Tavares also expressed his interest and welcomed the trade agreement reached between the UK and the EU – and added that the terms of the deal meant electric cars could now be built in the UK or continental Europe.
On paper, he said, it might make more sense to invest in Europe, because “the biggest market is on the continental Europe side”.
However, he said, there were other factors to consider. “It also depends on the UK government’s willingness to protect automotive industry in its own country, which is about their strategy.
So, we are now reviewing those scenarios. “Couple of months ago Mr. Tavares was speaking at a press conference to mark the $50bn mergers of Vauxhall’s parent company, PSA Group, with the Italian American company FiatChrysler.
As per a collection of opinions by many automobile experts across the country the remaining options for the Cheshire plant are to continue with the production of IC engine-powered cars with the position addition of a new hatchback model until the ban prospect to be announced by 2030.
The next option is winding up the production of Ellesmere port totally. And the final one is securing the plant’s long-term future by committing to making a new generation of electric cars in the northwest.
In which the last option is highly preferred by both the government and unions still require backup confidence that the country can build the necessary battery production facilities to service both this and other car plants across the nation.
At present, the only available source of a battery plant in the northeast, which works exclusively with its former owner Nissan group.
Under the terms of the Brexit trade deal, batteries made in the European Union (EU) can be installed in UK-assembled vehicles for export back to the EU (where most are sold).
But industry experts say the economics do not make sense as the batteries are heavy and hard to transport as they are not currently permitted through the Channel Tunnel for safety reasons.
Mr. Tavares has also marked his disappointment for the UK government to bring forward the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars to 2030 and said it might make more sense to move future electric production closer to its biggest market in the EU.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak will address the issue in his Budget speech next Wednesday, which is coincidentally the same day that Stellantis announce their annual results and operating review.
Also, the Government officials are quite aware that the future of car production in the country depends on a rapid scaling up of battery production and it is widely hoped it will be discussed in the budget speech.
Government officials are aware that the future of car production in the UK depends on a rapid scaling up of battery production and it is widely hoped
