For the many thousands of employees at Stellantis' plant in Luton, England, Friday, March 28, was the last working day, as the more than 120-year-old car factory closed.
On Friday, March 28th at 12:28 p.m. UK time, the employees at Stellantis' car factory in Luton, England, were able to pack up. After more than 120 years, the factory came to a standstill for the last time.
The last car to leave the factory was a white Vauxhall (Opel, ed.) Vivaro.
The decision to close the historic commercial vehicle factory was announced by Vauxhall owner Stellantis in November 2024. The group's entire UK van production will be moved to the site in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.
But not everyone will be moving to the new factory. Some have chosen to say no to a new job, while others have been cut in the cutbacks that have generally affected the Stellantis group.
It was former Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares who, a few months before his own firing, announced that the factory would be closed down.
The factory is closing permanently – the last employees went home on Friday
At the time, Carlos Tavares blamed the shutdown on the British so-called ZEV mandate, which will force all new cars to run on electricity by 2030.
The ZEV mandate is hurting our business quite significantly, the former director said.
Despite Tavares' firing, the decision to close Luton has not been reversed. And now it's too late. Stellantis still believes that the closure is the only right thing to do if the group is to meet its goal of selling nothing but electric cars by 2030.
However, the British government has been backing away from that goal a bit lately. Read more about it here.
The fact that the British are now not entirely sure whether they will only allow new electric cars in 2030 does not change the fact that one car factory in the country has closed. And that more closures may be on the way.
Ford in Europe, which also has factories in England, is currently having such a difficult time that the parent company has chosen to free up 33 billion kroner to separate the European business as an independent unit.
Ford in Europe can use the money to pay off a massive debt. But it's not certain that it will all be enough. In any case, unionists fear that Ford in our latitudes is heading towards bankruptcy.
