Stellantis to add more electric van models at Ellesmere Port
According to a report by The Times, Stellantis is investing a further £50 million (around €58 million) to produce battery-electric variants of the Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro and related models at its Ellesmere Port plant from next year. The additional funding doubles the originally planned investment for the site.
At the same time, Stellantis has warned the UK government in Westminster that the plant will not be able to operate profitably if financial penalties under the ZEV mandate are enforced. The regulation sets binding annual sales quotas for zero-emission vehicles for carmakers in the UK.
For vans, the required share of zero-emission sales will increase from 10 per cent in 2024 to 100 per cent by 2035. The current quota stands at 24 per cent, meaning that nearly a quarter of all light commercial vehicles sold must be fully electric.
Stellantis’ decision to produce its medium-sized battery-electric vans in Ellesmere Port is linked to the closure of its Luton plant. The company had originally planned to manufacture both internal combustion engine vans and electric derivatives of the mid-sized range there. However, last year, the group decided to shut down the plant, also citing the ZEV mandate as a factor.
“We are going ahead as planned with the commitments we made at Ellesmere Port,” Stellantis Europe Chief Emanuele Cappellano told the British newspaper.
However, he added: “Operating in the UK is currently unsustainable under the regulations and there is an urgency for that to be addressed.”
The automotive group has long argued that the regulations force it to produce an excessive number of zero-emission commercial vehicles or limit the number of diesel vans sold to avoid penalties. For every van that fails to meet the UK’s requirements, a penalty of £18,000 currently applies.
According to The Times, Ellesmere Port currently produces around 14,500 small electric vans annually. The production of medium-sized electric variants is expected to improve capacity utilisation. However, long-term profitability at the site remains uncertain.
The number of electric vans available on the UK market continues to grow, but recent industry data indicates that they account for less than 12 per cent of van sales so far this year. However, the ZEV mandate also stipulates that 70 per cent of new vans sold in the UK must be electric by 2030.
The Ellesmere Port plant, which previously produced models such as the Opel/Vauxhall Astra, is now Stellantis’ only fully electric factory. Around 950 employees currently build battery-electric versions of the Vauxhall Combo, Citroën Berlingo, Peugeot Partner, and Fiat Doblo there. As The Times reports, last year the plant also manufactured 30,000 bodies for export to a Stellantis plant in Algeria.
Additionally, ‘it is understood the majority of the 14,500 production run of finished vans also went to Algeria, as demand in the UK domestic market for electric vans remains depressed.’
The future of the Ellesmere Port plant has also not always been certain. Before Stellantis decided in 2021 to convert the site into a fully electric vehicle factory, closure had been considered as a possible scenario. As part of the transformation, the company reduced the plant’s footprint by 60 per cent. Today, the entire site covers 118,000 square metres, roughly the size of the former body shop. Stellantis has invested a total of £100 million in the conversion of the UK plant in recent years.
1 Comment