French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen steers toward 8 pct share in Chinese market
French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen hopes to increase its share in the Chinese market to 8 percent by 2015, the company's CEO Philippe Varin said Monday in Shanghai.
The target is a step up from the company's less than 4 percent market share in the world's largest auto market last year.
Of the desired market share, 5 percent is expected to be from PSA's joint venture with Chinese carmaker Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. and the remaining 3 percent will come from a new company formed jointly by PSA and China Changan Automobile Group, Varin said.
PSA's joint venture with Dongfeng sold about 376,000 vehicles in China last year.
Varin said the venture with Changan is awaiting the Chinese government's final approval.
PSA and Changan signed a deal for a 50-50 manufacturing joint venture in July 2010 with an initial investment of 8.4 billion yuan (1.29 billion U.S. dollars). The new plant will have a production capacity of 200,000 vehicles and 200,000 engines.
China has become the second largest market for PSA products, he said.
In a move that shows China's importance to PSA, the company unveiled its new DS5 premium five-seat car on Monday, which will be the first model of the coming new venture.
