PSA Peugeot Citroen reportedly aims to recover from last year’s sharp sales decline in China and expand sales in the world’s third-largest vehicle market by about 28% in 2005.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Executive committee member Robert Peugeot told Reuters on Wednesday that the French car maker wanted to sell 115,000 vehicles in 2005 after sales fell 13% in 2004 to 90,000 units.
The news agency noted that PSA is off to a solid start: it posted a 44% sales rise in the first quarter of 33,000 Peugeot and Citroen cars in China, which accounted for just under 3% of its global sales of 3.38 million units in 2004.
Reuters said PSA is spending €600 million ($US780 million) to double capacity at its main Chinese plant by the second half of 2006 to 300,000 cars – it controls about 4% of the market, lagging the one-quarter share of leader Volkswagen.
The news agency noted that, last week, PSA’s Peugeot arm said it expected to more than triple sales in 2005 to 40,000 cars in China, its third largest market outside Europe, though that target came in a fifth lower than chief executive Frederic Saint-Geours’ prediction last June, when he said the French firm planned to sell 50,000 cars in 2005 in China.
