Peugeot has been seriously considering their Indian return for sometime now. We had infact spotted a few Peugeot cars testing here in Pune many months back. They announced a new plant in Gujarat last September totaling an investment of $850 million.
The latest update from the company is that they have scrapped their plans to build their own plant here in India, at least for now. And the company plans to build cars ‘with’ their new global alliance partner General Motors here in India. GM has two plants in India, one near Mumbai and the other at Halol in Gujarat. Peugeot said they are exploring ways through which they can use GMs plants in India.
However, Gregoire Olivier, Peugeot head of Asian operations also said that their initial plan to start Indian operations with a small car and a compact remains intact.
Peugeot was present in India under partnership with Premier Automobile Ltd but exited Indian market in 1997. GM and Peugeot entered a broad-based alliance in vehicle development and production in February this year and GM also acquired a 7 percent stake in Peugeot.
Let us wait and see how this alliance works in India. We hope we see Peugeot cars soon here.
By,
Saad Khan
Editor MotorBash
Source: Economic Times
