VAUXHALL CEO Nick Reilly has hinted that the Ellesmere Port plant is one of the front-runners to build the new electric car.

Speaking during his visit to the North Road site on Friday, Mr Reilly said the plant is ‘very much a contender’ to manufacture the Ampera model, although any decision will not be made for at least 12 months.

The 59-year-old, who was a former director at the factory, praised the improvements made at the site and the ‘enthusiasm’ of the workers.

Mr Reilly also talks about General Motors’ U-turn over the sale of its European operations to Magna, and the UK Government’s £270m worth of loan guarantees to the car maker.

On his visit to Ellesmere Port:

“I’ve been back in Europe for about four months and I’ve been very occupied with the general restructuring of Vauxhall and also engaged with the governments, and obviously with the business itself.

“So this is the first time I’ve actually had the opportunity to come to Ellesmere Port. I have a strong affinity for it because I used to be plant director here some years ago.

“It’s a visit really to let me catch up with their progress. I have been following it from a distance but I’ve been very impressed while I’ve been here with the spirit of the organisation, with the improvements they’ve made in productivity, in quality.

“They also have an outstanding safety record in the plant and if you walk around and talk to the people you can see where it comes from.

“There is an enthusiasm, there is a determination to improve and I think it has come from the fact they do realise that the automotive industry is a very tough one.

“If they hadn’t made these improvements I might be here for a very different reason. If they keep that spirit up there is a good outlook for the future.”

On the Ampera:

“The news of the car itself is terrific. As for manufacturing it here (in Ellesmere Port), we haven’t taken a decision to manufacture it in Europe at all yet.

“As each day goes by we’re getting more interest in the vehicle, particularly from governments because they see the value in this.

“The UK government announced it would give it a maximum incentive of about £5,000 a car, which obviously reduces the cost for the user.

“But it’s not just the UK, we’ve had great interest many different countries.

“Some of it does depend on how much incentive there is because initially the car will be more expensive until we can get the cost of the battery down.

“We’ll probably make that decision in 12 months time. Ellesmere Port is very much a contender.”

On the Magna deal:

“There is a misconception sometimes about that. GM would never have wanted to sell Vauxhall.

“At the beginning of last year when they were having to go into bankruptcy in the US they presented a plan to the US government.

“The US government said ‘OK we will support your restructuring, we will help you financially, but none of the money we give you can go out of the US’.

“When GM looked around the rest of the world they basically told everyone ‘you’re on your own’ so Europe needed to get money from somewhere else.

“Therefore we had to look for an investor and go to the European governments. That ended up with a deal that was very nearly done with Magna.

“But in the last couple of months, while still negotiating the Magna deal, a few things happened in the US.

“First of all GM came out of bankruptcy quite quickly. They had a much stronger balance sheet and actually were in an even stronger financial position than they thought they would be.

“The second thing was the government then appointed a new board of directors for GM and said ‘we’re going to stop taking the decisions for the company, and we lift the ban on you spending any money outside the US’.

“So the board looked hard at Vauxhall and believed GM would be a much stronger global company if it had a very strong position in Europe.

“Therefore they decided to keep it. I’m very pleased that decision was taken.”

On the UK Government:

“I’m very impressed by the approach they had to it. It wasn’t just a matter of keeping jobs in the UK, they were actually at least as interested in the overall viability plan that we had so that if they did guarantee, they did support, we wouldn’t be back for more later.

“They were clearly happier with our plan than they were with Magna. They’ve done everything they could have. We hope and expect other governments to follow their lead.”