Birth of Stellantis Makes Peugeot's Return to North America Uncertain
On Saturday, FCA officially merged with French auto group PSA to form Stellantis, the world’s fourth-largest automaker. What happens next? Well, we will find out in the coming days and weeks, but it appears as though Peugeot’s planned return to North America is now uncertain.
In case you forgot, Peugeot announced in February 2019 its intention to sell cars on this continent beginning in 2026. A few weeks later, the company’s plans were moved up to 2023.
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But that was before PSA entered into a process of merging with FCA. According to Peugeot CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato, the brand might not come back here after all.
“We were last speaking about [Peugeot’s U.S. re-entry] a year and a half ago, before Stellantis,” Imparato told European journalists in an online discussion last week. “We can’t not take into account that in the coming days Peugeot will be part of this new world. I imagine in the coming months due to the new strategy we will have to adapt and reconsider all elements, including this one.”
PSA also owns Opel, Citroen and DS, but its best-selling brand is Peugeot, which left the North American market in the early 1990s.
Imparato said it was important that the company didn’t overlap brands, but that is not really a problem. On one hand, you have Ram’s pickups, Jeep’s off-road-ready SUVs, Dodge’s muscle cars and Chrysler’s minivans. On the other hand, Peugeot is mostly about smaller cars, sedans and urban crossovers. It also relies heavily on electrification.
However, the serious difficulties experienced by the Fiat brand within FCA in North America (it recently dropped the 500L and 124 Spider, keeping only the 500X crossover) should be a warning to Stellantis as it ponders relaunching Peugeot on this side of the Atlantic.
Imparato further mentioned that Peugeot will concentrate on its core markets of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America while solidifying its presence in China.
We might learn a bit more on Tuesday as Stellantis will host its inaugural press conference with new CEO Carlos Tavares.
