Peugeot will land in America in three years. Here are the cars it plans to focus on
The French brand will return to the US after decades away, and Peugeot's North American head said there are two segment of focus to start.
Yes, Peugeot is prepping a comeback. By the time the French brand lands in the US again, it will have been 32 years since the company sold cars to American buyers. But what kind of cars will be on the docket?
CEO of PSA North America, Peugeot's parent automaker, Larry Dominique told Automotive News in a Monday interview that the C- and D-segments are of high interest to the brand. In US terms, those are the compact and midsize car segments.
Dominique was bluntly stating Peugeot doesn't have a pickup truck to compete in the growing segment, but he noted the compact and midsize markets are still very high volume, and Peugeot wants a piece of it in the US.
Does that mean there's a short list of cars the French brand may sell here? We don't know and Peugeot didn't immediately return a request for comment on the matter. It would be lovely to see the 208 hatchback and 508 sedan in the US, but we also don't know if Dominique is referring to crossovers. Obviously, a crossover-heavy lineup would be the more obvious choice in the land head-over-heels in love with utility vehicles. Then again, the CEO said the C- and D-segments would only be of "initial" focus.
As for how the pending FCA-PSA merger affects Peugeot, the CEO hinted it hasn't fazed his work. Instead, he's simply focused on building out the brand's digital retail footprint with a smaller focus on physical dealers. And although Peugeot will tackle a couple of high-volume segments, he wants to ensure volume won't be the largest profit driver in the years to come.
We'll certainly learn more about Peugeot's plans in the next couple years, especially once FCA and PSA close their massive merger to create the fourth-largest automaker in the world. And when that happens, it'll be known as Stellantis.
