Peugeot (PSA Group) re-entering India as a tie with CK Birla Group may not be the most exciting news for the auto enthusiast in you considering the cars that PSA makes. But they have cars that will make a normal car buyer excited. For beginners it’s a welcome change from the familiar cars from Marutis / Hyundais or Mahindras. As the statistics show the biggest sellers in Indian market are not the most exciting cars to drive.

PSA was the second largest European car manufacturer in 2012 and if you look at PSA globally they have a car in almost every segment. They even have a small electric car which is better than our Rewa. They have a market share of around 7.5% in the UK where they compete with a lot more manufacturers than they will do in India. They can introduce their Citroen C1 or Peugeot 108 to begin with to compete with Wagon R and Celerio followed by Peugeot 208, 2008 SUV, 508 Saloon and 5008 SUV then they have a pretty decent chance to survive in the extremely price conscious automobile market in India. The key will be to get the price right and manufacture reliable cars. That is easier said than done as they will have to optimise supply chain and put in a strict quality control in place to match their European standards. If they get it wrong in the beginning then even if they make their cars the best in class later, the public will look at them with suspicion and the sales will never recover.

PSA can launch DS3 / 208 Gti / 308 Gti in a way VW launched Polo Gti in India just to show what their cars are capable of if the right engine, gear box and suspension are combined together.
I am excited because if it all works well we can see a bit more pleasant looking cars on our roads compared to the KUVs and TUVs.

For those among us who doubt the capabilities of PSA group as a car manufacturer watch this video from Topgear S22E5. It shows the evolution of the company and how they made exciting cars before 2000 (Let’s not forget the greatest ever hot hatchback Peugeot 205 GTi) and their decision later to make boring cars but those which can be sold to the masses.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2if9gy

PSA should evaluate bringing in the Citroen brand. That surely will be an unknown brand for India, but one without the negative perspective that Peugeot had left behind. Besides, the older car loving folks certainly did love the brand for its swashbuckling contribution.

The 5-door C1 sells cheaper than the 108 and makes good sense for Indian conditions (apart from the outrageous headlamp arrangement that can easily be changed).

However, I guess they will stick to Peugeot, with the 108 5-door rather than the 208.

From my experience of driving French cars - have driven a couple Peugeots and a couple Renaults; not driven A Citroën - they are pretty rubbish and not a patch on American, Asian or other European cars. The only reason Citroën and Peugeot are still around and have not disappeared like Rover is that the French Govt probably bails them out or must be shoring them up. There was nothing wrong with the cars - but if I recollect, their ergonomics were weird and their driving can be called staid. Meanwhile, I wonder what their potential partners make of this ad for the 206.

Tried my best but couldn't resist posting this video-Top Gear's hilarious take on Peugeot.








Regards,
Shashi

You must be referring to figures at the time of the Ku Klux clan because Peugeot's current UK market share is 3.2%.

I am not sure the time that you referring to. But if you see the chart below its as recent as 2016 and I don't think it was the time of KKK.
https://www.smmt.co.uk/vehicle-data/car-registrations/
PSA owns Citroen, Peugeot and DS - let the figures in the below chart speak for itself.

The graph indicates Peugeot as 3.96.

Now, if I haven't forgotten my arithmetic, that figure should be closer to 3.2 than 7.5.

It's like VW clubbing the sales of Audi, Skoda, VW, Lambo, Porsche, Bugatti et al and arriving at the total percentage of sales for a country.

Never done as they are different brands and which is why the graph shows them separately.

We'll leave the discussion on Citroen's sales reduction by 21% and Peugeot's by 4% for another day. (25% reduction in sales as per your math)

This is what happens when you do a selective quoting and start trying to make a point and the whole discussion goes OT for no good reason.
This is what I wrote;
' PSA was the second largest European car manufacturer in 2012 and if you look at PSA globally they have a car in almost every segment. They even have a small electric car which is better than our Rewa. They have a market share of around 7.5% in the UK where they compete with a lot more manufacturers than they will do in India. '

All throughout my post I considered all the 3 brands together so it only makes sense to include the whole group when it comes to any statistics , ie Peugeot, Citroen and DS.

In your example when VW Group reports its figures to the public and stake holders it includes every single brand under them. They will drill down later into each brand later to see what works well and what don't.

Refer to the links below; they are only shown to explain how an auto mobile group present their figures.
http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/mo...les-first-time


I am sure that you will now be able to appreciate the figures as my post and the discussion is around PSA group and not just Peugeot.

Well the news is published in HT today, 4 days after T-BHP had reported this.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/busine...RnH1iInUN.html

I remember this one time our company rented us out a almost new DS which we picked up from Edinburgh airport to our office in Perth (there's one in UK as well). My colleague (a Brit who drives a Volvo) was extremely annoyed with this one. The gear lever had so much play, the clutch pedal moved sideways and down instead of just down, the touchscreen HU had an awful lag and the heater took its own sweet time to heat the cabin (it was January and was freezing outside). I drove the next day and my feelings were not much different. Gears were notchy, it had this weird modulation for the A-lever and worst of all, this Diesel with an extremely hard clutch.

On some stretches with no medians, even with a 50MPH limit, our car swayed when other cars passed us from the opposite side.

That was the last time we hired a DS. Its always VWs or Volvos from then on.

Peugeot may offer cars with 1.2- and 2.0-litre diesel engines, named DW10FC and EB2DTS. The DW10FC is a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine that produces 133 kW (180 hp) at 3,750 rpm and 400 Nm of torque at 2,000 rpm. It is paired to the ML 6-speed manual transmission. The EB2DTS is a 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder that develops 96 kW (130 hp) at 5,500 rpm and 230 Nm of torque at 1,750 rpm. This engine is also available with a 6-speed manual transmission.

If the below car comes down to India , it would be a looker!





Source and more info IAB

I wouldn't be surprised, if they launch with some of their crossovers first.

One, Its really difficult to compete in the Indian hatchback market. With such established players and competent products already out there!
And two, the new Peugeot crossovers definitely have some design flair and something different from whats already in the market, at least in terms of interiors.

French car maker PSA (Brands - Peugeot, Citroen & DS automobile) have decided to make a re-entry in India in collaboration with CK Birla group.
It's been almost 20 years since Peugeot left India after not so successful stint in a joint venture with Premier Automobiles Ltd.
Their first car Peugeot 309 sold 10k units in first year which was a impressive number at that age. However, labor unrest and increasing losses forced Peugeot to exit India in 1997.

Now they plan to launch passenger vehicles by 2020 in India with this JV. They would invest nearly €100 million ($107 million) in vehicle and power train manufacturing in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

To the disappointment of car enthusiasts the current focus seems to bring fuel efficient cars to India as per their chief Carlos Tavares - "I think this is something that Indian consumer is very demanding on, fuel efficiency means slow emissions. We are the leaders of European industry in terms of CO2 emissions, we are the best and we beat the Germans, we beat the Japanese, we beat the Americans, we beat all the other car companies so we bring the best of our technology to a market where fuel efficiency is the one of the core expectations of the consumers "

Peugeot makes some really nice looking cars and it would be interesting to see what they bring to India. This news reminded me an old advertisement of Peugeot 206 -
Interesting times ahead for sure.

The French have this 'I love you, I love you not' thing going on with respect to the Indian car market for quite a long time now.

CK Birla Group is more famous for their 'Orient Fans' but they have an automotive division that makes engine components

www.avtec.in

Useful press release material from avtec.in

The PSA Group and the CK Birla Group sign joint-venture agreements to produce and sell vehicles and components in India by 2020.

News 1

News 2

CKBirla run collaboration companies haven't produced any stalwarts in the Indian car market. The doomed Hindustan Motors and Mitsubishi partnership has a story to tell as well. We'll see how the PSA venture pans out.