IBC Vehicles


IBC Vehicles Limited is a British automotive manufacturing company based in Luton, Bedfordshire and a subsidiary of Vauxhall, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Opel Automobile GmbH. Its principal operation is an assembly plant located in Luton, Vauxhall Luton, which currently produces light commercial vehicles sold under the Opel and Vauxhall marques.

History

IBC Vehicles has its roots in Bedford Vehicles, the van 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. Its first product was the Bedford Midi - a badge engineered clone of the Isuzu Fargo midsize panel van, intended to replace the ageing Bedford CF. The Suzuki-based Bedford Rascal microvan followed in 1987. In 1992 the factory produced a European version of the Isuzu Wizard aka Amigo 4WD called the Opel/Vauxhall Frontera and the Isuzu MU aka Trooper 4WD called the Opel/Vauxhall Monterey and a range of Renault-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. The Frontera A was produced from 1992 - 1998 and the Frontera B 1998 - 2004.
In 1998 GM bought Isuzu out of the IBC partnership and renamed the plant to GMM Luton.

Products

GMM Luton produced the Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro A, Renault Trafic and Nissan Primastar from 2001 to 2014. The Hi-top roof versions were built in Barcelona, 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, France.