The director of the Ellesmere Port car plant which has undergone a £100 million electrification has won a top national award.

Diane Miller, plant director of the Stellantis/Vauxhall factory, was announced as the winner in the manufacturing category in the Autocar Great Women Awards 2024.

Autocar's editor Mark Tisshaw said: "We are thrilled to celebrate Diane as Manufacturing winner of this year's Autocar Great Women.

"Her position at Ellesmere Port overseeing the electrification of the plant – a move which is critical to the UK's automotive future – places her at the pinnacle of our industry. Her success is a huge inspiration to future leaders. Congratulations, Diane."

Diane Miller said: “I'm very honoured to receive this award.

"It’s great to see the breadth of female talent that we have in our industry, and I am very proud to be part of this. I hope that we can inspire many more young girls, and indeed women of all ages, looking for a career change to get involved in the automotive industry.

"I know that if we all continually work to improve the diversity and inclusion of our teams, it will genuinely give us a real business advantage.”

Diane Miller is plant director at Stellantis, a role that she has held since February 2022. She is a graduate of Liverpool John Moores University where she qualified with a degree in mechanical and production engineering and later completed an MSc in automotive engineering. She joined Ford Motor Company in general assembly and then was promoted to paint engineering manufacturer managing a team across Europe and later held positions in the USA.

In 2014 she joined Aston Martin as paint operations manager, before joining Groupe PSA in 2014 as paint unit manager at Ellesmere Port and then promoted to general assembly manager in 2020.

Ellesmere Port is the UK’s first EV-only volume manufacturing plant and the first Stellantis plant globally dedicated to electric vehicles, following a £100 million investment to transform the plant for EV production.

The plant produces the Vauxhall Combo Electric, Opel Combo Electric, Peugeot e-Partner, Citroën ë-Berlingo and the Fiat E-Doblò, compact vans, plus the passenger vehicles across the Stellantis brands, including the Vauxhall Combo Life Electric, Peugeot e-Rifter and Citroën ë-Berlingo MPVs.