General Motors surprised the European automobile market when it reached a deal to sell Opel and Vauxhall to France’s PSA Group this month. While GM wants to save important resources by foregoing development of Europe-only automobiles, PSA Group has bigger strategies.
Robert Peugeot, chairman of the PSA Group’s technique committee, described to Reuters, that “all big carmakers have a volume of 3 million cars in one essential market”. With the ownership of Opel and Vauxhall, PSA will trail only Volkswagen in the continent share with 17 percent. Volkswagen presently holds 24 percent of the market.
And PSA thinks it will conserve $1.84 billion every year by 2026 after expanding economies of scale for its three brands plus Opel and Vauxhall. The French car manufacturer went on to state Opel ought to go back to profitability by 2020 with its strategies.
The Peugeot family overruled any worry of sales cannibalization, too. Indicating the German and UK markets, Opel and Vauxhall outsell Citroen, Peugeot and DS combined in both nations. PSA also believes adding the brands will assist sway consumers who would never ever consider a French car.
It’s clear that PSA’s objective to go global. Jean-Philippe Peugeot included the purchase of GM’s European departments will enable PSA Group to “conquer the rest of the world step by step”. Presently, GM and PSA Group have a non-compete provision, which means PSA is prohibited to offer any GM-developed vehicles in markets where the U.S. automaker exists. That implies you should not expect an Opel to show up in North America anytime quickly.
But still, it leaves the future wide open, and PSA is currently looking at Opel stuff. The 2019 Corsa F is anticipated to switch to a PSA platform for its presentation and share plenty with the Peugeot 208 subcompact.
PSA needs to take entire control of Opel and Vauxhall by the year’s end.
