Vauxhall owner Stellantis has announced plans to close its historic commercial vehicle factory in Luton, just months after bosses threatened closures as part of a battle with the UK government over its zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate.
The announcement, which puts 1100 jobs at risk, is part of a move to “consolidate” Stellantis's UK manufacturing footprint to one site at Ellesmere Port, which last year began making EVs following a £100 million upgrade.
Stellantis said this decision is one that will “potentially contribute to greater production efficiency” – something it said would also allow it to meet increasingly stringent ZEV mandate targets.
The multinational giant said that if proposals announced today are given the go-ahead, all of Luton’s production operations would be moved to Ellesmere Port to create “an all-electric, sustainable vehicle hub”.
More than £50m would then be spent again upgrading the Merseyside site to take on the extra work.
Just a few hundred jobs would be moved north, Stellantis said.
A consultation has been announced for affected workers, with those unable to make the move being offered retraining or potentially offered jobs at neighbouring businesses.
In response, a government spokesperson said: “While it’s encouraging to see Stellantis investing in the future of its Ellesmere Port plant, we know this will be a concerning time for the families of employees at Luton who may be affected.
“We have a longstanding partnership with Stellantis and we will continue to work closely with them, as well as trade unions and local partners on the next steps of their proposals."
Stellantis has long argued against the ZEV mandate, and this August, CEO Carlos Tavares threatened plant closures as part of a review in its UK operations.
Tavares said the ZEV mandate was “hurting significantly our business model”, as car makers were being forced to sell more EVs while no incentives were offered to buyers and the industry grappled with a downturn in EV interest.
Under the mandate, car makers must achieve an EV sales mix of 22% in 2024, rising incrementally each year to 80% by 2030, or face heavy fines for every non-electric car sold over the threshold.
Tavares’s words came a month after former Stellantis UK boss Maria Grazia Davino warned that the company could stop building vehicles in the UK if the government’s electrification initiatives created a “hostile” trading environment.
Before Stellantis’s announcement earlier today, reports suggested the government was about to announce a consultation on the ZEV mandate following talks between ministers and car makers last week. At the time of writing, nothing has officially been announced.
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very sad to lose a big manufacturer, but hardly a surprise. Stellantis have been saying for a long time that they cant work within the UK with ZEV targets as they are. That factory only makes ICE vans, soits market will dry up into nothing in no time.
People buying vans dont want EVs any more than the public do. Only CoCar drivers are taking them, protected from the cost, and barely taxed.
I actually think EV Vans make sense (at the right price), if you dont do a big distance. A local milkman has an EV Berlingo, and that seems a perfect useage case, as long as it lasts. Nice to see Milk being delivered by a milkfloat again after all these years of stop start diesel pickups.
The answer is to drop the ZEV mandate and allow people and business to buy what they want. EV fanatics keep on telling us how good they are, and if its true you dont need to tell people what to buy, and if they work for you, just like the local milkman, they will buy one.
You know when someone is clueless when they start to think they speak on every ones behalf.
Well done, Starmer, you cretin! Bringing forward the ICE ban and not reducing the EV mandate means you've killed-off a big employer in one of your constituencies -that's not growth is it??! I'm sure all those workers at that 120yr-old factory site will be very glad they voted for Labour...
Too many brands, too many factories and no clear direction