A £100M investment is going into Ellesmere Port, Cheshire vehicle plant of Vauxhall parent Stellantis to build pure electric vans and people carriers in 2022.
It lost the next Astra car project but has secured the new investment to build models for Stellantis brands of Vauxhall, Opel, Peugeot and Citroen and will be exporting most of the production to Europe.
Announcing the plan, Stellantis paid tribute to its workforce, the unions, British Government, local councils and enterprise bodies.
The news will safeguard about 1,000 jobs and support thousands more in the supply chain, although it will still, at this time, need to import battery packs from abroad before any gigafactory is established in the UK.
This is the second electric vehicle boost for Britain in a month after Nissan said it will build a huge new battery plant and extend vehicle production at its Sunderland site.