The final British-built Vauxhall Astra has rolled off the line at Ellesmere Port as the Cheshire factory readies to transform into an electric vehicle manufacturing hub.
From early next year, the factory will produce the Vauxhall Combo-e and its sibling vans, the Citroën ë-Berlingo and Peugeot e-Partner.
This follows the announcement last year that Vauxhall parent company Stellantis would invest £100 million into the site to support its transformation.
Ellesmere Port therefore becomes the first Stellantis plant to produce only EVs.
It will also build the passenger variants of the above vans: the Opel/Vauxhall Combo-e Life, Citroën ë-Berlingo and Peugeot e-Rifter.
The final Astra built at Ellesmere Port was an Astra Sport Tourer 1.2 Turbo SRi Nav manual in red.
The plant, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, has built more than four million Astras since starting with the first generation in November 1981. The Astra will now be built at Opel’s Rüsselsheim site in Germany.
Vauxhall managing director Paul Willcox said: “Over the last 60 years, Ellesmere Port has become one of the great British car plants, producing some of the most popular cars on the roads across generations.
“With one era closing, we’re now looking forward to an all-new electric era at Ellesmere, with the site becoming the first Stellantis plant to produce solely electric vehicles.
"Vauxhall is fast moving towards an electric future, and I’m pleased to see the next-generation of Vauxhall electric vehicles made in Britain.”
Vauxhall will sell only EVs from 2028 and said “the transformation at Ellesmere Port will ensure the UK remains at the forefront of electric vehicle manufacturing”.
The plant upgrade is also part of Stellantis’s commitment to become a carbon-neutral firm globally by 2038 and to halve its carbon footprint by 2030, based on 2021 data.
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The new Astra was announced a while ago, so I'm surprised they've still been making the old model right up to now?
Think the one behind is an Opel Astra but you are right, the text under the picture says the last Astra, which isn't obviously correct. Just read another Autocar article on the end of the Mondeo and there is a picture of a MK2 dashboard with a caption saying it's a MK3, so it doesn't look like they take much care on accuracy for their online content.
There endeth 35 years of mediocrity. "Vauxhall, where average is good enough for the likes of you" should have been the GM motto.