French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën is Europe’s second biggest after the Volkswagen Group, but it still doesn’t have a presence in many vital markets such as the U.S. With most of its cars sold in Europe, PSA has been hit particularly hard by the continent’s recent economic crisis, which has led to China’s Dongfeng and the French government stepping in and buying stakes in the company.

PSA’s new CEO Carlos Tavares, a former senior exec at rival French automaker Renault, is working to streamline the automaker’s jumbled product lineup, expand into new markets, and launch the current DS sub-brand as a standalone premium brand in order to help stem years of losses.

Speaking with Edmunds, Tavares said a return to the U.S. market was also being considered, though any such move wouldn’t occur until four key goals were met. Those goals include:

  • Establishing a three-brand portfolio consisting of Citroën, Peugeot and DS
  • Reducing the number of model lines from the current 45 to just 26
  • Returning the company to profitability in 2016
  • Modernizing the automaker’s manufacturing facilities to boost efficiencies

At present, Tavares forecasts these goals being reached around 2017-2018.

In 1991, Peugeot ended sales in the U.S. after a 33-year run. Its last model was the 405 sedan, which only managed a couple of thousand sales in its final year on the market.

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