Vauxhall owner considers UK plant closures – decision to be made ‘within weeks’

Vauxhall’s owner will decide whether to close its UK plants in “the coming weeks”.

Stellantis, Europe’s second-largest carmaker, has been weighing its options for months amid a dispute with the Government over quotas for electric vehicles (EV).

In an update yesterday, boss Carlos Tavares urged ministers to relax the rules to secure the future of its plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton.

“We’re getting to a point where we have to make a decision, and that will happen in the next few weeks,” he told Bloomberg TV yesterday.

The grim warning comes as demand for electric cars across Europe plummets.

Drivers are reluctant to purchase electric vehicles due to high prices and lack of charging infrastructure.

Tavares urged the Government to “help stimulate demand” if it wants firms like Stellantis to sell a greater proportion of electric cars. He said the government threshold for green sales was about double “natural” levels of demand.

The grim warning came as Sir Keir Starmer welcomed big business to an investment summit in London.

Stellantis, which was formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA, which owns Peugeot and Citroën, makes electric cars and vans at its Ellesmere Port plant and larger petrol and diesel vans in Luton.

It had planned to start manufacturing electric vehicles in Luton later this year.

Government targets dictate that 22 per cent of manufacturers’ car sales must be zero-emission this year. This figure is expected to rise to 80 percent by 2030.

In the case of vans, 70 percent of new sales should be electric by the end of the decade. Companies can be fined up to £15,000 per vehicle if they fail to meet these targets.

There are signs that consumers are turning their backs on eco-friendly models amid increased competition from Chinese automakers.

And British drivers are putting off battery-powered cars because of their high prices. Figures published earlier this month showed that only 92,627 cars powered solely by batteries were registered in the European Union last month, down 44 percent from August last year.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), which published the figures, stated that the electric vehicle market was “now on a continued downward trajectory”.

ACEA urged European governments to delay draconian green targets, saying that refusing to extend the 2035 deadline to end production of gasoline and diesel cars “raises the daunting prospect of multi-billion-dollar fines or unnecessary production cuts and losses.” of jobs”.