Since the Geneva Motor Show, PSA is at the heart of all discussions as soon as the word “alliance” is pronounced in the world of the automobile.
“Everything is open, if we make money, we can dream of everything,” said the boss of the group in Switzerland, Carlos Tavaresabout a possible partnership with Fiat-Chrysler.A few days later, the Peugeot family was gearing up: “We have supported the Opel project from the start, and if there is another opportunity, we will not stop and Carlos knows, he assured Les Echos newspaper Robert Peugeot. “With [Fiat-Chrysler], as with others, the planets could be aligned.”
If Fiat-Chrysler is in the PSA viewfinder, it’s because the two builders seem complementary. An alliance between these two middleweights would allow the French group to open wide the doors of the American market and the Italian-American to catch up on the electric motors.
Together, PSA and Fiat-Chrysler would sell about fifteen brands on all continents, and establish themselves as a heavyweight automotive market, able to compete with Volkswagen, Toyota or Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi.
What could be the consequences for the group’s factories in the counties? The last alliance, the purchase of Opel-Vauxhall, has rather benefited Vesoul, with fifty new jobs (from the Opel store in Gonesse) and Sochaux, which now produces Opel Grandland.
Nevertheless, mergers are rarely job-creating, and there are many concerns in the event of a major new alliance. Especially since the recent challenge of the 35h PSA Vesoul site has shown if it was necessary that the management of the group operates all the levers in his possession to improve the competitiveness of its plants.
PSA dreams of a new alliance with Fiat-ChryslerReportage of Jérémy Chevreuil, Eric Debief and Stéphanie Chevalllier. With Didier Klein, vice president of Pays Montbéliard Agglomération in charge of economic development and specialist in the automotive industry; Jean-Paul Guy, CFTC-PSA Vesoul and Jérôme Boussard, CGT-PSA Sochaux