Vauxhall expands in Luton
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• The successor to the Renault Traffic and Vauxhall Arena will be built in Luton, as Commercial Motor reported from the CV show, creating 500 jobs at the plant over the next 18 months.
Vauxhall has confirmed that the plant will get the job of building more than 80,000 vehicles a year from spring 2001 following a £130m investment to transform it into a dedicated CV production facility. The plant will build the vehicles for sale across Europe badged as Vauxhall/Opel and Renault, which developed the 2.5-2.8-tonne van.
Vauxhall is putting £32m into another Luton plant to improve the Vectra production line; a further £27m is going to a site at Ellesmere Port, where the Astra Van is built. The investment should help the plants step up production, with the Luton line scheduled to move to three shifts. Nick Reilly, chairman and MD of Vauxhall, says he can't give any guarantees but adds that the irijection of money 'obviously helps the prospect of maintaining employment in the future".
More details of the van will be released later in the year.
• The European Commission is to investigate a t 311m grant from the Belgian Government to a Ford Transit production line in Genk. The EC says the probe has been launched because of "doubts about the necessity of the aid"—it is empowered to disallow the grant.