The French Car major Peugeot is actively planning and plotting the grand entry in our country, scheduled to take place as early as 2020. Recently, the company acquired our iconic and prideful brand Ambassador's ownership. It also acquired General Motors brands Opel and Vauxhall, making it stand on the second position in terms of car manufacturers all across the European car market. The way they are expanding their brand ownership and targeting various already set markets around the globe seems to trigger their overall sales in the near future in huge numbers.
Acquiring distinct companies is not the only thing that the company has in its to-do list to climb up the ladder of profitable market share. The company is also planing to bring out of the league "smart cars' to one of the fastest growing auto sector in the world, ie, India. The conglomeration of Peugeot, Citron and DS motor works refused to launch segment oriented cars at the beginning, rather chose to bring all new smart cars and coup concepts to India, to bring out fresh and never seen before materials to Indian customers in order to receive their attention t its best.
Previous attempts to enter the country included the one made in 1990s, when the company could launch mere one car brand collaboratively with Premier Automobiles, and the second made in 2011, which failed due to the prevailing European debt problems. It has turned the company over cautious for the third attempt.
The company is planning to launch SUV-inspired hatchback belonging to the segment of Maruti Suzuki's Swift followed by a compact SUV and a mid-size sedan but the company has tagged the technology as Smart Car 1, Smart Car 2 and Smart Car 3 because of the internal upgradations that will make the vehicles distinct from the above mentioned ones. For this, the company has already engaged Tata Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services for engineering development and sourcing support in India. All shall be based on PSA's budget friendly CMP platform.
We all know that India will switch over to a level up in Bharat Stage pollution norms by 2020, which makes it the right time for the company to launch its vehicles here. It will make the vehicles cost effective and closer to the pricing of vehicles by its competitors like Maruti and Hyundai. Though Tavares, CEO of Peugeot, has still not made the intentions behind the takeover of Ambassador brand any clearer.
