IBC Vehicles Limited is an English automotive manufacturing company based in

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

and since 2021 a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational corporation

Stellantis Stellantis N.V. is a multinational automotive manufacturing corporation formed in 2021 on the basis of a 50–50 cross-border merger between the Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group. The comp ...

. Its principal operation is an assembly plant located in Luton, Vauxhall Luton, which currently produces light commercial vehicles sold under the

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired 8 ...

, Opel,

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

and

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

marques.

History

IBC Vehicles has its roots in

Bedford Vehicles Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a brand of vehicle manufactured by Vauxhall Motors, then a subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. Established in April 1931, Bedford Vehicles was set up to build commer ...

, the

van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

manufacturing subsidiary of Vauxhall. In 1986 the Bedford Vehicles van factory in Luton was reorganised as a joint venture with Isuzu. The resulting company was named IBC Vehicles (Isuzu Bedford Company Limited). Its first product was the Bedford Midi - a

badge engineered In the automotive industry, rebadging is a form of market segmentation used by automobile manufacturers around the world. To allow for product differentiation without designing or engineering a new model or brand (at high cost or risk), a ma ...

clone of the Isuzu Fargo midsize panel van, intended to replace the ageing

Bedford CF The Bedford CF was a range of full-size panel vans produced by Bedford. The van was introduced in 1969 to replace the CA model, and was sized to compete directly with the Ford Transit, which had entered production four years earlier. Its desi ...

. The

Suzuki is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal co ...

-based Bedford Rascal microvan followed in 1987. In 1992 the factory produced a European version of the Isuzu MU aka Amigo 4WD called the Opel/Vauxhall Frontera Sport and the

Isuzu MU Wizard The Isuzu MU is a mid-size SUV which was produced by Japan-based manufacturer Isuzu from 1989 to 2004. The three-door MU was introduced in 1989, followed in 1990 by the five-door version called Isuzu MU Wizard. Production of these first gener ...

aka Rodeo 4WD called the Opel/Vauxhall Frontera and a range of

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...

-designed vans sold under the Vauxhall and Opel brand names. The Bedford name was dropped completely as were all of its preceding range apart from the

Midi MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...

. The Frontera A was produced from 1992 to 1998 and the Frontera B 1998 - 2004. In 1998 GM bought Isuzu out of the IBC partnership and renamed the plant to GMM Luton (GM Manufacturing Luton). General Motors sold Opel, including Vauxhall and the Luton plant, to

Groupe PSA The PSA Group (), legally known as Peugeot S.A. (Peugeot Société Anonyme, trading as Groupe PSA; formerly known as PSA Peugeot Citroën from 1991 to 2016) was a French multinational automotive manufacturing company which produced automobiles ...

in 2017. Groupe PSA merged with

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) was an Italian-American multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles, commercial vehicles, auto parts and production systems. The Italian holding company Exor was the largest ...

to form Stellantis in January 2021.

Products

GMM Luton produced the Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro A,

Renault Trafic The Renault Trafic (pronounced as "traffic") is a light commercial van produced by the French automaker Renault since 1980. It is also marketed as the Fiat Talento, the Nissan NV300, the Nissan Primastar, the Mitsubishi Express and, until the ...

and

Nissan Primastar The Renault Trafic (pronounced as "traffic") is a light commercial van produced by the French automaker Renault since 1980. It is also marketed as the Fiat Talento, the Nissan NV300, the Nissan Primastar, the Mitsubishi Express and, until the ...

from 2001 to 2014. The Hi-top roof versions were built in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Spain by Renault at the former Nissan Plant because the Luton IBC building was not high enough to accommodate the Hi-top vehicles. By 2011, the plant had produced 1.25 million vehicles since the 2001 launch, with production now down to 68,000 vehicles a year, with a capacity for 100,000. Opel/Vauxhall announced in 2011 that the 2013 Vivaro would continue production at Luton and the high roof versions and the Renault Trafic would be manufactured at

Sandouville Sandouville () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime ''département'' in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A farming and light industrial village, by the banks of the Seine, in the Pays de Caux, situated some east of Le Havre, ...

, France. In early 2020, in addition to the Vauxhall Vivaro, the plant started building Citroën Dispatch and

Peugeot Expert Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

vans. In September 2022, the factory began to produce the

Fiat Scudo Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiar ...

. 2019 Vauxhall Vivaro 2700 Edition 1.5 Front.jpg, Vauxhall Vivaro 2016 Citroen Dispatch 1000 BlueHDi X S 1.6 Front.jpg, Citroën Dispatch

References

External links

Luton Plant. Facts and Figures
{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom Companies of England Manufacturing companies established in 1986 Companies based in Luton Motor vehicle assembly plants in the United Kingdom Opel factories Vauxhall Motors