PSA-GM: The final solution?

It is quite clear that executives of General Motors Europe and PSA Group have been working behind the scenes for quite some time in secret to cobble together a deal to off-load General Motors’ Europe (GME) vehicle-making operations.

Vauxhall overturns bleak prospects

Five years ago, the future looked bleak for Vauxhall's light commercial vehicle plant in Luton.

Now the future is guaranteed for 10 years when the next generation model goes into production there at the end of the three-week August shut-down.

€190 million for new Vito production

Daimler has invested €190 million to upgrade its van plant in Vitoria, Spain to produce the next generation Vito.

Following the summer shutdown, production will begin of the next generation Mercedes-Benz Vito at the facility, which has also just seen another model changeover for the new Mercedes-Benz V-Class factory. The new MPV goes on sale in June.

World premiere of all-new Trafic

Having claimed to have sold 1.6 million Trafic vans and derivatives since 1980, including ‘the first-generation developed solely by Renault’, the French company will reveal its third-generation design at the forthcoming commercial vehicle exhibition in Birmingham, UK on 29 April.

Observers will be able to make comparisons in detail between Renault’s Trafic and the Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro made only in Luton, Bedfordshire, UK. The Trafic is built in Sandouville, France.

Car and van records flow at Vauxhall

Vauxhall’s two UK manufacturing plants have both reached production milestones. The 250,000^th Astra Sports Tourer rolled off the production line at Ellesmere Port and the Luton facility built its 900,000^th Vivaro-type van.

Yesterday, workers at Ellesmere Port, Britain’s number one manufacturer of estate cars, held a celebration at the end of the production line as the quarter of a millionth Astra Sports Tourer, the UK’s best-selling estate car, was driven off the production line. Over 2.8 million Astra vehicles have been sold since it went on sale in 1980 with 30,000 sold alone this year.

The Sports Tourer is assembled solely at Ellesmere Port for export across Europe; this reflects the depth of Vauxhall’s engineering and manufacturing excellence in the UK.