Vauxhall plant gets electric-van lifeline

ELLESMERE PORT, England -- Stellantis said it will build full-electric versions of its Opel/Vauxhall Combo, Peugeot Partner and Citroen Berlingo small vans at its factory in Ellesmere Port, northwest England.

The automaker will spend 100 million pounds ($138 million) to convert the factory for electric-vehicle production starting at the end of 2022, it said on Tuesday in a statement.

The plant will become the first in the Stellantis production network to build only electric vehicles.

The decision secures the future of the plant, which has been uncertain since Stellantis decided to move production of the new-generation Astra Tourer station wagon from Ellesmere Port to Opel's home factory in Ruesselsheim, Germany.

The electric vans will be built in Ellesmere Port for the UK and for export to continental Europe. The factory will produce light commercial versions with side panels and passenger versions with up to seven seats.

The plant's annual production will be 50,000 units a year initially on a double shift system, well below the 160,000 units that the factory was capable of building at the height of Astra production. A third shift is planned to increase production to 60,000, said Stellantis global head of production, Arnaud DeBoeuf.

"It's lower than installed capacity of Astra but it's far higher than current production of Astra, at around 23,000 a year," he said.

Stellantis had considered building the new Astra in Ellesmere Port, but decided van output made more sense, DeBoeuf told Automotive News Europe.

The van has many advantages over the Astra, he said. "We have more volume, we have all brands, we have full-electric so we are free to export to Europe without any problem [with tariffs] and also we have a strong position in vans here, because we already produce vans at Luton [southeast England]."

Stellantis will build a new body shop and on-site battery pack assembly at the plant. The company will source battery cells from existing suppliers initially, then from its Automotive Cells Company venture with TotalEnergies from 2023. Stellantis doesn’t have plans now to source any batteries from the UK, though it might in the future, Deboeuf said.

The automaker, which was formed from the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler in January, will shrink how much of the Ellesmere Port site it uses to reduce inefficiencies and consider redeveloping excess land.

Currently the plant employs around 1,000 people. Stellantis aims to retain that number, DeBoeuf said. "We will fight for all jobs" he said.

The investment includes support from the British government, which Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares had said in March was essential for Stellantis to invest in the plant. No figure was given for the government's investment but it is understood to be about 30 million pounds.

Stellantis already makes commercial vans at a factory in Luton, England, where it made just over 62,000 vehicles last year. In May, the automaker said the Luton site would gain a third shift to meet demand for the Vivaro, Citroen Jumpy/Dispatch and Peugeot Expert.

Van sales are surging across Europe, partly due to the growth in demand for online delivery services. Stellantis said the zero-emissions vans built in Ellesmere Port will help to make a significant contribution to reducing emissions in towns and cities.

The passenger versions will enable families to enjoy a "zero emission" active life with up to seven seats, the automaker added.

The vans are powered by a 136-hp motor with a 50 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery. Their range in the WLTP cycle is 280 km (174 miles).

Production of the vans is currently done at Stellantis factories in Vigo, Spain and Mangualde, Portugal. Vigo builds the electric versions.

The vans are built on a modified version of the EMP2 compact platform.

Stellantis currently builds a version of the van for Toyota called Proace City. The company could add production of electric versions of the model to Ellesmere Port if Toyota wanted, DeBoeuf said.

The announcement is the second within a week to promise new investment in the UK’s automotive industry. The first was Nissan’s decision to build a new full-electric crossover in its plant in Sunderland, northeast England.

Ellesmere Port has been building Vauxhalls and subsequently Opels since1964, when it produced the Vauxhall Viva small car. The plant has built one other van previously in 2006 when it assembled the Astravan derived from the Opel Astra compact car.

Bloomberg and Reuters contributed to this report