Doubling Up

On a tour of General Motors' European plants, President Harlow H. Curtice last week gave out some cheery news for European motorists. Over the next five years, said Curtice in London, G.M.'s British subsidiary, Vauxhall Motors, will spend $101 million for expansion. The money will go for a new body plant 30 miles outside London, and a nearby component-parts factory. With the new additions, Vauxhall, now Britain's fourth biggest automaker, will double output from 130,000 to 260,000 cars and trucks a year, thus provide more cars for export and the rapidly expanding British market. Said Curtice: "By 1960, there will be nearly a million more motor vehicles in operation [in the British Isles]--that is, some 5,000,000, compared with about 4,100,000 at present."

In Brussels, two days later, Curtice announced that G.M. would double its output in the Benelux nations, too, by spending $6,000,000 to expand its assembly capacity. Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands, said he, should provide a market for 166,000 cars and trucks by 1960, up 26,000 from the expected 1954 total.

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