Thanks to PSA’s purchase two years ago of the Opel brand from General Motors, Peugeot will return to the U.S. and Canadian markets “within three or four years,” according to an interview with CEO Carlos Tavares in The Wall Street Journal. Tavares’s statement comes more as an update of PSA Peugeot Citroën’s timeline, more so than an acceleration, in that the CEO announced back in 2016 that one of the French brands (before it purchased Opel and Vauxhall from GM) would return within 10 years. A return in “three or four years” indicates the first new Peugeots will return to the U.S. by the 2023 model year at the latest.
The year 2026 “is not a hard date, it’s an end date,” Peugeot Citroën’s North American president, Larry Dominique, told Automobile Magazine when Tavares named Peugeot the marque of choice this February. Tavares indicated to WSJ that his company would sell EVs, SUVs, plug-in hybrids, and models from across its lineup in America, an indication of the brand’s earnestness when it comes to U.S. success.
However, purchasing Opel/Vauxhall gave Peugeot Citroën the ability to accelerate plans “because it gave the company a team of engineers familiar with U.S. specification,” according to the Journal story.
Meanwhile, Peugeot Citroën may be looking for new partners to expand its reach and to have more parts and components purchasing power as one of the largest automotive combinations in the world. The Wall Street Journal also reported recently that Fiat Chrysler “rebuffed” Peugeot Citroën’s interest in exploring a partnership or alliance, while Automotive News said that the French and the Italian-American automakers are in talks to explore joint investments. Peugeot Citroën and Fiat Chrysler are said to be considering a “super plant,” a large assembly plant that could build models from both manufacturers in Europe to reduce costs, AN says.
Fiat Chrysler also is rumored to be considering a partnership or alliance with Nissan Renault, just as ex-Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn and current Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa were working on a deal to turn the Japanese-French automaker’s alliance into full ownership.
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