Vauxhall Motors Limited , ;Company No. 00135767. Incorporated 12 May 1914, name changed from Vauxhall Motors Limited to General Motors UK Limited on 16 April 2008, reverted to Vauxhall Motors Limited on 18 September 2017. is a British car company headquartered in Coventry, England. Vauxhall became a subsidiary of PSA Group in 2017, and later, its successor Stellantis in January 2021, having previously been owned by General Motors since 1925.
Vauxhall is one of the oldest established vehicle manufacturers and distribution companies in the United Kingdom. It sells passenger cars and electric and light commercial vehicles under the Vauxhall marque nationwide, and previously sold vans, buses, and trucks under the Bedford brand.
Vauxhall was founded by Alexander Wilson in 1857 as a pump and marine engine manufacturer. It was purchased by Andrew Betts Brown in 1863, who began producing travelling cranes under the company, renaming it "Vauxhall Iron Works". The company began manufacturing cars in 1903, and changed its name back around this time. It was acquired by American automaker General Motors (GM) in 1925. Bedford Vehicles was established as a subsidiary of Vauxhall in 1930 to manufacture commercial vehicles.
It was a luxury car marque until it was bought by General Motors, which thereafter built mid-market offerings. Since the Great Depression, Vauxhall has become increasingly mass-market.
Since 1980, Vauxhall products have become largely identical to those of Opel, and most models are principally engineered in Rüsselsheim am Main, Germany. During the early 1980s, the Vauxhall marque was withdrawn from sale in all countries apart from the UK. At various times during its history, Vauxhall has been active in motorsports, including rallying and the British Touring Car Championship. After 92 years under GM's ownership, Opel/Vauxhall was sold to Groupe PSA in 2017.
Vauxhall has one active commercial vehicle manufacturing facility in Ellesmere Port. It formerly operated the IBC Vehicles plant in Luton, which was closed in April 2025. In 2012, the Ellesmere Port plant employed around 1,880 staff and had a theoretical (three-shift) capacity around 187,000 units a year. Vauxhall-branded vehicles are also manufactured in other Stellantis factories across Europe.
The current car range includes the Astra (small family car), Corsa (supermini), Frontera (subcompact crossover SUV), Mokka (subcompact SUV), and Grandland (compact SUV). Vauxhall sells high-performance versions of some of its models under the GSe sub-brand. Significant former Vauxhall production cars include the Victor, Viva, Chevette, and Cavalier.
Vauxhall closed its Luton plant, claiming the decision was partly driven by government incentives for plug-in electric vehicles that adversely affected ICE vehicle sales, despite the plant being ready to transition to a new all-electric Vauxhall Vivaro 3 line in 2025.
History Independent (1857–1925)
Scottish marine engineer Alexander Wilson founded the company at 90–92 Wandsworth Road, Vauxhall, London (now the site of Nine Elms tube station), in 1857. It was founded as Alex Wilson and Company, and from 1857, the company built pumps and marine engines. In 1903 the company built its first car, a five-horsepower single-cylinder model steered using a tiller, with two forward gears and no reverse gear. About 70 were made in the first year, before the car was improved with wheel steering and a reverse gear in 1904. A single survivor could still be seen at the London Science Museum in 1968. A 1903 model was entered in the London-to-Brighton car run in 2018.
To expand, the company moved the majority of its production to Luton in 1905. The company continued to trade under the name Vauxhall Iron Works until 1907, when the modern name 'Vauxhall Motors' was adopted. The company was characterised by its sporting models, but after World War I, the company's designs were more austere.
Much of Vauxhall's success during the early years of Vauxhall Motors was attributable to Laurence Pomeroy. He joined Vauxhall in 1906 at the age of 22, as an assistant draughtsman. In the winter of 1907/8, the chief designer F. W. Hodges took a long holiday, and in his absence, the managing director Percy Kidner asked Pomeroy to design an engine for cars to be entered in the 1908 RAC and Scottish Reliability Trial, held in June that year. The cars were so successful that Pomeroy took over from Hodges.
Pomeroy's first design, the Y-Type Y1, had outstanding success at the 1908 RAC and Scottish 2000 Mile Reliability Trials—showing excellent hill-climbing ability with an aggregate of 37 seconds less time in the hill climbs than any other car in its class. With unparalleled speeds around the Brooklands circuit, the Vauxhall was so far ahead of all other cars of any class that the driver could relax, accomplishing the at an average speed of , when the car was capable of . The Y-Type went on to win class E of the trial.
The Y-Type was so successful that it was decided to put the car into production as the A09 car. This spawned the Vauxhall A-Type. Four distinct types of this were produced between 27 October 1908 and when mass production halted in 1914. One last A-Type was put together in 1920. Capable of up to , the A-Type Vauxhall was one of the most acclaimed three-litre cars of its day.
Two cars were entered in the 1910 Prince Henry Trials, and although not outright winners, performed well, and replicas were made for sale officially as the C-type, but now known as the Prince Henry. During the First World War, Vauxhall made large numbers of the D-type, a Prince Henry chassis with derated engine, for use as staff cars for the British forces.
After the 1918 armistice, the D-type remained in production, along with the sporting E-type. Pomeroy left in 1919, moving to the United States, and was replaced by C.E. King. Although Vauxhall made good cars, expensive pedigree cars of the kind that had served the company well in the prosperous prewar years were no longer in demand; the company struggled to make a consistent profit and Vauxhall looked for a major strategic partner.
Production figures: 1903–1925 Year Production figures Model 1903 43 5 HP 1904 765 HP; 12/14 1905 112/14 1906 1512/14 1907 6912/14 1908 9412/14; A09; B09 1909 195 A09; B09 1910 243 A09; B09; B10; A11; B11 1911 265A09; B09; A11; B11; C10 1912 302A11; B11; C10; S; A12 1913 387 A12; E 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 565 1920 689 1921 479 1922 637 1923 1462 1924 1366 1925 1388
General Motors (1925–2017) 1925–1939
On 16 November 1925, Vauxhall was acquired by General Motors for US$2.5 million.Display advertisement: The Future of Vauxhall Motors by managing directors L Walton and PC Kidner. The Times, Thursday, 26 November 1925; pg. 10; Issue 44129 At the time, the purchase was not popular among senior U.S. GM executives. Vauxhall was only making seventeen cars per week and was in a financial mess. The company's image and target market were gently but firmly changed over the next five and more years, marked particularly by the introduction in late 1930 of the low-cost two-litre Vauxhall Cadet and the next year the first Bedford truck, which was Chevrolet based. Vauxhall's chief engineer since 1920, Charles Evelyn King, retired as engineering director in 1950. The company's future chief engineer, Harold Drew, left Luton for a spell, working as a draughtsman with GM's Lansing-based Oldsmobile division. As the first significant post-acquisition passenger car, the Cadet, initially retailing at £280, is generally regarded as demonstrating Vauxhall's newly acquired interest and expertise in controlling production costs, but it was also the first British car to feature a synchromesh gearbox.
General Motors continued to reposition Vauxhall towards the middle of the British car market. They aimed to produce higher volumes of more conventional cars that, using GM's large engineering, design and production resources, would offer modern technology and high levels of equipment at a reasonable price, with competitors being the likes of Wolseley and Humber. The Cadet had been the first step in this process, which gathered pace in June 1933 with the launch of the AS-type Light Six. With an all-steel body and a refined and modern overhead valve inline-six engine, the Light Six was produced in 12- and 14-'tax horsepower' variants. Modernisation and expansion of the Luton factory meant that the Light Six was sold for £195 for the standard four-door saloon, which was significantly less than many of its older rivals with four-cylinder engines and fewer interior appointments, and Vauxhall made the unusual decision to offer both 12 and 14 models for the same price. Two-door saloon, coupe, tourer and cabriolet bodies were also available for extra cost, plus a range of other body designs from coachbuilders. The Light Six was an immediate sale success, surpassing all previous Vauxhall products by a large margin with 26,000 examples being sold in just over 12 months and with the Luton factory moving onto 24-hour shift work to meet demand. Vauxhall had suddenly become a significant player in the British car market.
After 15 months on sale the AS-type Light Six was replaced by the D-type Light Six. This was fundamentally the same as the outgoing model with minor styling and interior updates, but with one major engineering change—namely the addition of Dubonnet suspension to the front, making the new Light Six the first mass-production British saloon car with independent front suspension. The Dubonnet system was a GM patent, also used on Chevrolet and Pontiac models in the US and on Opel cars in Europe. The D-type Light Six was priced at between £205 and £245 for the standard saloon depending on the exact specification, which was still a lower-than-average price for a car of the new Light Six's size, power, equipment and technical specification and this was another successful model for Vauxhall.