PSA Peugeot-Citroen sees weakness in Britain and Spain dragging down the European car market in 2008.
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Speaking to at the Geneva show, chief executive Christian Streiff told Reuters PSA saw the European market flat to lower, whereas six months ago it had forecast a flat to higher market.
A Peugeot-Citroen spokesman told the news agency the view was unchanged since Streiff said during the company’s annual results presentation in February that market developments were not encouraging.
“There has been no change in our outlook (of the market) since the annual results were announced in February,” the spokesman said.
Streiff reportedly said at Geneva he did not think a slowdown in the US would have a big knock-on effect in Europe as a whole while emerging markets offered strong prospects for growth.
He also said Peugeot-Citroen was working on new entry-level models for specific emerging markets but these would not be low-cost cars such as Renault’s Logan or Tata’s Nano car.
According to Reuters, he said Peugeot-Citroen was also working on five premium-level cars, priced just below the luxury segment, with the first to be launched before the end of 2009.
Separately, Streiff said Peugeot would choose a partner for its new plant in Kaluga, Russia, and the location of a third plant in China, before 1 July.
He declined to comment on rumors that the partner in Russia could be Mitsubishi or Fiat, Reuters said, noting that PSA already cooperates with Mitsubishi on sports utility vehicles and makes vans with Fiat.
