PSA Peugeot Citroën celebrated the 10th anniversary of its first plant in Brazil and outlined some of its plans for the next few years during the launch of the medium-compact 408 sedan (a 308 spin-off) in Rio de Janeiro.
Executives at the event included Carlos Gomes, president of the French group’s Brazil and Latin American operations.
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Gomes was previously with the Fiat group for 12 years, running operations in France, Spain and Portugal, before joining PSA last 1 July.
He highlighted the increasingly market penetration of the two brands. Starting from 3% of the Brazilian market (48,000 with fully assembled imports only), they topped 5.2% in 2010, selling 174,000 cars and light commercials.
“Out of this total, 140,000 were made at the Porto Real plant [100 miles/160km southwest of state capital Rio de Janeiro City – ed]. The rest came from Argentina and a small proportion from Europe.
“At first we did not produce engines, yet in 2010 we built 220,000. Just two models came off the assembly lines a decade ago versus eight today. Headcount rose from 1,400 to 4,800”, Gomes told just-auto.
PSA plans to launch 15 new models in the 2010/14 timespan: two came last year (the Hoggar pickup truck and the C3 Aircross) and another two this year (408 and, soon, the C3 Picasso) plus the 3008 and RCZ imported built-up from France.
Gomes insisted platforms would be the same as used for production in Europe. But there will be local assembly specialisation: Brazil will build the higher-volume compact models while Argentina concentrates on medium size cars.
There is currently a production overlap between the two countries which negatively affects efficiency so volume per model will triple by 2014 to improve that.
The Argentine-made 408 goes on sale in March. It is a modern, stylish and attractive car with which Peugeot is targeting 10% market share among compact-medium sedans (M1 in Europe).
Last year 200,000 such cars were sold in this segment in Brazil which is more profitable than compacts.
The 408 has few styling changes compared with its Chinese built sibling. Despite sharing basic architecture with Citroen’s C4 Pallas sedan, just the 106.7in (2.71m) wheelbase (the segment’s largest) remains untouched. It is shorter, wider and insignificantly 0.6in taller than the C4.
Peugeot has redesigned the rear doors for more head clearance on entry and exit. Rear seat room is a highlight.
The 408 is competitively priced in each of its three trims from a base of R$59,500 (US$35,400) to R$79,900 ($47,5000) with three years bumper to bumper warranty included.
