General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM) and PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) have presented Thursday plans for a new series of small cars and minivans based on technology from the French company, so that development costs will be distributed to several companies and models, Reuters. GM Vice President, Steve Girsky, and PSA Peugeot Citroen chief, Philippe Varin, said at a joint press conference that difficult decisions will be adopted on where the new models of the two companies will be built. The new products will come on the market in 2016, according to the GM executive.
In order to balance the transaction that will combine Peugeot style with future versions of Opel, Corsa, Meriva and Zafira, GM center in Ruesselsheim, Germany, will develop successors for Peugeot 2008 and Citroen C3 Picasso models, announced Varin and Girsky. Opel is the European subsidiary of General Motors.
“From what we see now, there will be no negative impact on the resources of each part of this alliance,” said the head of Peugeot when asked of the possibility of layoffs.
Recently, GM and Peugeot have announced that they will seek to develop a new generation of small gas engines and will explore industrial initiatives and products in Latin America and other emerging markets in expansion. The alliance between the two companies aim to achieve annual savings of $2 billion over the next five years.
Because of the car market decline in Europe, PSA Peugeot Citroen has launched a plan that provides for the elimination of 8,000 jobs and the shut down of a factory in France, near Paris. In March, General Motors agreed to take a stake of 7% in Peugeot.
GM reported losses of $478 million on the European car market in the third quarter of 2012 and the cumulative period since 1999. The U.S. car manufacturer lost $17.3 billion in Europe since 1999. GM originally wanted to sell Opel, but gave up because it has not found a suitable purchaser.
Affected by the decline of the European car market, Opel announced that it might close the plant in Bochum in 2016; this would be the first car plant in Germany to be closed after the Second World War. Opel has 37,400 employees in Europe, including 20,300 in four German factories in: Ruesselsheim, Bochum, Eisenach and Kaiserslautern.
Reply