Peugeot Citroen Opens A New Plant In China, 150,000 Cars Will Be Produced There Annually

The PSA Peugeot Citroen Group inaugurated, Tuesday, a new plant at Wuhan, in the same time, the first plant the French automaker built in the same industrial city located in the center of China, works at its full potential, according to a company’s press release, quoted by AFP. PSA Peugeot Citroen hopes to sell at least 270,000 cars only via the DPCA company, created in association with Dongfeng, 90,000 cars more compared to last year, a 50% raise in annual terms, Claude Vajsman, the Chineze Group CEO recently stated in front of the journalists, NewsIn informes.

The new DPCA plant will make possible the production of 150,000 cars per year, leading to a cumulated capacity of production of 450,000 vehicles.

The new plant in Wuhan will produce, at first, the new Citroen C5, with sells expected between 4,000-4,000 pieces margin a month, beginning in 2010 when the car will be available for buying.

PSA counts on the market effect, after China became this year the world’s first automarket, with the car sales in China increasing 38% in the first the months of the year, at 10.89 million vehicle, according to the Chinese Automakers Association.

As well, PSA counts on products too, wanting to build new models to adapt to the Chinese buyers, after a harsh 2008. The 180,000 vehicles of the two French brands sold in 2008 represented a 12.7% drop compared to 2007, on a market the raised 8%, according to Chinese statistics.

PSA launched a few moths ago the Chinese C4 (called C-Quatre, to avoid the number 4, that in Chinese has a pronunciation close to the word “to die”). Now, about 9,000 C-Quatres are sold every month.

Peugeot wants to launch in the first half of 2010 a new sedan. With this model, the French group wants to recover its retard on the Chinese market, where it has a 3,5% bench mark, according to its own views, being way behind General Motors, the leader. GM sold in 2008 over 1,1 million cars and got close to 1,3 million vehicles in the first nine months of this year.