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PSA reportedly ditching its two tiny gasoline city cars ahead of merger

The Peugeot 108.   PARIS — PSA is ending the production of Peugeot and Citroen small city cars, three sources told Reuters, withdrawing from an increasingly unprofitable market as its starts a strategic review ahead of its planned merger with Fiat Chrysler. While PSA had already agreed to sell its stake in its Czech joint venture with Toyota where the Peugeot 108 and Citroen C1 models are made, the decision to stop selling the gasoline cars altogether has just been taken, the sources said. Carmakers are reviewing the production of vehicles with combustion engines as they need to fit costly exhaust filtering systems to meet tighter emissions laws. That's pushing up the cost of some so-called entry-level A segment cars to the point where they are hard to justify economically. "PSA is getting out of both the factory and the A segment business, as it is offered today, and on which manufacturers have arguably lost the most money in Europe," one of the sources familiar with the matter said. PSA declined to comment on the future of the two small cars. It said it was reviewing which products would best meet customer expectations in the A segment and cope with European carbon emissions targets. "This means a reflection with fresh and disruptive ideas," a spokesman for the French carmaker said. The European Commission is planning to tighten its emissions limits for cars under new proposals designed to cut the bloc's greenhouse gas output further by 2030. PSA's merger project with FCA has also increased the options available, two of the sources said, as the Italian-U.S. company has no intention of abandoning its small best-selling Panda and 500 models. Both already have hybrid versions and the 500 is also available in full electric mode. "Current projects could be replaced by new ones made possible by the merger with FCA", another source said. "The merger is turning all the cards around, especially when you consider that the A segment, from the very first 500 to the Panda, is inseparable from Fiat history". FCA declined to comment. PSA and FCA aim to finalize their merger in the first quarter next year to create a new company called Stellantis, which will be the fourth-biggest automaker in the world. Market contraction The European market for frugal city cars has been shrinking for several years.

Peugeot will prove it doesn't offer cheater diesels

Our diesels are clean, really. That's the message from French automaker PSA/Peugeot-Citroen as it plans to go on the offensive in response to Volkswagen's diesel-emissions scandal. PSA will go out of its way to prove its diesels are as clean as advertised. The company is looking at disclosing "real-world" fuel-economy statistics as soon as next spring and will use an independent entity to vet the numbers, Automotive News Europe says, citing comments that PSA/Peugeot-Citroen financial chief Jean-Baptiste de Chatillon made to reporters this week. Such efforts may be vital, since roughly two-thirds of the vehicles Peugeot-Citroen sells in Europe are powered by a diesel engine. Last month, VW admitted that as many as 11 million of its diesel-powered vehicles were programmed with software designed to cheat emissions-testing systems. The news shook up the industry, especially companies that sell a good chunk of diesels. The EU itself may start instituting "real world" fuel-economy and emissions testing as soon as 2017. French regulators have said they may eliminate diesel-fuel subsidies that currently make diesel fuel cheaper to customers than gas. That adjustment may occur as soon as next year, since it's been pushed up in response to the VW scandal. Peugeot-Citron continues to reiterate that it has never installed software that was designed to cheat emissions-testing systems. Additionally, the automaker was more than a decade ahead of European Union mandates for engine components designed to cut soot emissions, so the company is hoping its track record makes a difference. It wants to be perfectly clear about that. News Source: Automotive News Europe-sub.req.Image Credit: Cletus Awreetus/Flickr Green Volkswagen Citroen Peugeot Diesel Vehicles vw diesel scandal France psa peugeot citroen

Peugeot family cedes control in rescue deal with China's Dongfeng

PSA Peugeot-Citroën may have been saved from the brink of collapse. It has finally completed a deal where Chinese automaker Dongfeng and the French government are each investing about 800-million euros ($1.1 billion USD) to take 14 percent stakes in the automaker, according to the BBC. The deal dilutes the Peugeot family's stake from 25.4 percent to 14 percent. In addition to that, it is raising another 1.4 billion euros ($1.9 billion) from existing PSA investors. The deal still must be approved by shareholders, but is expected to pass.
The deal's announcement comes at the same time that PSA has announced its 2013 financial results. It posted a 2.32-billion euro ($3.2 billion) loss last year, which can be considered a substantial improvement compared to the 5-billion euro ($6.9 billion) loss in 2012. Sales were down 2.4 percent last year.
The Dongfeng deal has been rumored since last year, and the two companies are already linked, as Dongfeng runs a PSA joint-venture factory in China. The French government is promising to use its stake to protect Peugeot workers in France when it becomes a shareholder.