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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