Classic British motor brand Vauxhall is celebrating 60 years of production at its Ellesmere Port site, looking forward to a £100m investment but also looking back as the last ever Astra rolls off its production line.

The Ellesmere Port plant was opened in 1962 with the aim of producing the iconic Vauxhall Viva, and has since built many more household motoring models such as the Chevette and of course the Astra. In those 60 years the facility has built a total of 5.2 million vehicles and the diamond jubilee comes as the company is looking to a multi-million pound investment which will change the plant into Stellantis’ first ever purely battery model factory.

Vauxhall will be building their Combo-e at the plant when the £100m upgrade has taken place, in addition to the Peugeot e-Partner and Citroen e-Berlingo vans.

But it is the end of an era for the Astra, first built at the Cheshire plant in November 1981, the popular model is now in its seventh generation. The final Astra to come off the production line was a Sport Tourer SRi Nav 1.2 Turbo Manual in Hot Red.

Paul Willcox, Managing Director, Vauxhall & Senior Vice-President, Stellantis, 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.”

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