Is PSA planning a premium brand?

Peugeot-Citroen may revive the Panhard brand for a new range of premium vehicles based on shared platforms. The strategy has worked extremely well for Toyota and Lexus and PSA hopes to increase profits by implementing something similar. Panhard, for those of you too young to remember, was a large French manufacturer before WWII but stopped making passenger cars in 1967. The company is still around, but only build light military vehicles.

PSA’s new CEO Christian Streiff has said in the past that the group already plans to release six new models by 2010 and to reduce fixed costs by 30%. The next order of business could be to upgrade some vehicles and sell them for a higher profit, but with the amount of competition in the industry this will probably be a tough call.

According to a report from Automotive News Europe, the rumors were started when a stretch Peugeot 607 was built for the French president.

We’re not convinced that PSA will be able to succeed in the premium sector. Reviving a brand that nobody has heard of is tough enough (Maybach anyone?), let alone the lack advanced drivetrains and technology required to compete with the big boys.

Streiff has also said that they may consider re-introducing Peugeot to the US now that the small car market is heating up, but this is also a long shot.