Scottish engineer Alexander Wilson founded the company in 1857 as a maker of pumps and marine engines at Vauxhall, south London, and it was renamed Vauxhall Iron Works in 1863. Its first car, a five-horsepower single-cylinder model steered with a tiller, appeared in 1903, and in 1905 production moved to Luton, where the company became Vauxhall Motors in 1907.
Before the First World War, Vauxhall built fast, high-quality cars such as the Prince Henry of 1910, often called one of the first British sports cars, and the 30-98 that followed. In 1925 General Motors bought Vauxhall, and in 1930 it set up Bedford as its commercial vehicle arm.
Under GM, Vauxhall moved into mass-market cars, and post-war models such as the Victor, Viva, Cresta, the “Droopsnoot” Firenza and the Chevette became familiar British classics. A second factory at Ellesmere Port on Merseyside began building cars in 1964. PSA Group bought Vauxhall in 2017, and it became part of Stellantis in 2021.
