The French car maker PSA has been able to further increase its sales. PSA registered in Rueil-Malmaison Paris a plus of 7.8 percent in the third quarter compared to the same period last year quarter , The conversion had grown accordingly to 15.4 billion euros.
PSA includes the brands Citroën . Peugeot , Vauxhall, DS and Opel , The Opel division with its British sister brand Vauxhall sold 3.87 billion euros from July to the end of September. That was a significant increase of around 39 percent. The other brands grew marginally.
Strong growth comes unexpectedly
However, analysts had expected lower growth. In October, Opel had in the Eisenach factory Introduce short-time work , Whether the previous year’s figures are comparable, can be doubted – because the German company is only since August 1, 2017 in the books of PSA listed. PSA had Opel the US automaker General Motors (GM) bought.
For the first time, Opel had nearly 20 years of losses in the first half of the year again reported an operating profit , PSA CEO Carlos Tavares said at the beginning of the month that the Renovation of Opel about one-third completed.
In the first nine months of 2018, the entire PSA Group increased its sales to around 54 billion euros. This was an increase of around 29 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
Peugeot replaces VW as European market leader
The company did not disclose earnings in the third quarter. PSA’s main concern is to restore Opel’s profitability and reduce fixed costs. “It’s our top priority, we need a healthy business,” said CFO Philippe de Rovira. When this is achieved, you can grow again.
Unlike the rival Volkswagen added PSA to car sales in Europe. Outside Europe, deliveries of PSA shrank as Peugeot withdrew from Iran.
According to analysts at Jato Dynamics, Peugeot Volkswagen replaced car sales in September as Europe’s market leader. The best selling PSA model was the Opel Corsa.