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 a ...

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. Its principal operation is an assembly plant located in Luton, Vauxhall Luton, which currently produces

light commercial vehicles A light commercial vehicle (LCV) in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand is a commercial carrier vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of no more than 3.5 metric tons (tonnes). The LCV designation is also occasionally used in both Cana ...

sold under the Citroën, 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 the ...

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 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 Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst t ...

- 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 A panel van, also known as a blind van, car-derived van (United Kingdom) or sedan delivery (United States), is a small cargo vehicle with a passenger car chassis, typically with a single front bench seat and no side windows behind the B-pillar. ...

, 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-based

Bedford Rascal The is a kei truck produced by the Japanese automaker Suzuki. The microvan version was originally called the Carry van until 1982 when the passenger van versions were renamed as the . In Japan, the Carry and Every are ''kei cars'' but the Suzuk ...

microvan followed in 1987. In 1992 the factory produced a European version of the

Isuzu MU 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 Amigo 4WD called the Opel/Vauxhall Frontera Sport and the Isuzu MU Wizard 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 manufacture ...

-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 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 ci ...

, 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 Communes of France, commune in the Seine-Maritime ''Departments of France, département'' in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region in northern France. Geography A farming and light industry, light industrial vi ...

, France. In early 2020, in addition to the

Vauxhall Vivaro Opel Vivaro, a light commercial vehicle, which is also sold in the United Kingdom as the Vauxhall Vivaro, may refer to: * The Opel Vivaro A, based on the second-generation Renault Trafic, and was produced between 2001 and 2014 * The Opel Vivaro B, ...

, the plant started building

Citroën Dispatch 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 ...

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. 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