Melbourne show: Peugeot targets 10,000
BY DAVID HASSALL | 4th Mar 2008
Automobiles Peugeot vice-president Bernd Schantz, whose worldwide responsibilities include the company’s biggest growth markets of China, South America and Russia (which he said will usurp Germany as the biggest market in Europe within five years), told GoAuto last week that Australia is “a very important market for us”.
He said that the decision to launch the new 308 Touring ahead of the Geneva show was recognition of Australia’s standing in the Peugeot world.
Mr Schantz indicated that the company would conduct another global reveal at the Sydney motor show in October, but would not say what vehicle it will be. GoAuto understands that this will be the 308CC convertible, but that it may appear at the Paris show one week before Sydney.
“This is a very important market for us a strategic market for us,” said Mr Schantz, who described Peugeot’s recent sales growth in Australia as “spectacular”.
“We have been here for more than 50 years, so there is a great history for Peugeot and we have never gone away, we always decided to stay in this market and that’s a great complicity between this market and Peugeot.
“The second point is that our products are quite well adapted to this market. Peugeot cars are quite stylish and I think this fits very well with this market.
“So I hope – and this is our target – that this year we will sell more than 10,000 cars. We had a very important increase in the last year, but I think that we should go much further.
“In the future we have some potential and we have to work on this market to optimise our position. My personal challenge is to increase very quickly countries like Australia because of the huge potential.
“For sure, Australia is very important for us because Peugeot decided to present the 308 Touring in Australia before Geneva. It shows that Australia is a very important market for Peugeot and I think the next world premiere will be in Sydney, too, without saying too much.
“It’s a little bit symbolic, but it is important because a lot of motor shows want to have a world premiere and the decision to show the 308 Touring here is a good symbol.” Mr Schantz said there was no thought of Peugeot following the likes of Renault, Audi and Volkswagen by taking over the Australian operation, in this case from Asian-based Sime Darby Automobiles, which took over the franchise in 2001.
“I think that things are going very well in Australia and you never change a winning team. We have a very good relationship with the Sime Darby Group,” said Mr Schantz.
“I saw yesterday one survey which shows that our dealer network is very happy with our situation so I would say we shouldn’t complicate our lives because things are going very well. I think that if Sime Darby are happy with us, we are very happy, too.” In terms of the product to grow the brand in Australia, Mr Schantz is looking for extra sales from the new 308 over the old 307, as well as building on the success of its various convertibles and wagons, while additional volume should come from the introduction of Peugeot light commercial vehicles in the third quarter of this year.
Diesels will also play a vital role in Peugeot’s market push and already account for 52 per cent of local sales.
Peugeot Australia managing director Rob Dommerson makes no secret of his desire to get the 107 minicar here as well – “We’d like to see it here it would get younger people into Peugeot,” he said – but Mr Schantz said there remains a supply problem as the car is shared with Toyota and Citroen in Europe, with demand exceeding supply.
Mr Schantz also provided little encouragement on the vital issue of pricing support to get the car under the 207’s Australian entry point of $19,990.
“When people buy a Peugeot, the first reason in general is the styling, more so for Peugeot than for other brands. Styling is the first reason for buying, the price is the first reason to retract. It’s the same for everybody.
“What is very interesting for me is to look at several papers about the cars and to see what the fundamental importance of pricing is in this country. We very clearly have to adapt this to the market. The price is not the only argument … but we have to talk about this and, if we want to go higher than the 10,000 units we want to do this year, we have to utilise the price policy. I think this is fundamental.
“It is clear that the pricing is one determining factor in the growth of Volkswagen in this country. The relationship between the dollar and the Euro is not very favourable for us at the moment, but we clearly have to reflect on our pricing strategy for the coming years.” On the supply issue, Mr Schantz said it would be at least six to eight months before 107 production can be increased.
Although not specific to the 107 problem, Mr Schantz said that Peugeot must look at new low-cost sources of production in the future, in addition to the company’s rapidly expanding four year-old venture in China.
He noted that Peugeot’s new plant in Argentina (which currently builds the old 206) is working on a supply deal with South Africa, which is a right-hand drive market like Australia.
Peugeot remains without an all-important SUV in Australia, but Mr Schantz said that “we are preparing something for the years to come”.
The company has the Mitsubishi Outlander-based 4007 in some markets, but this is not presently available to Australia (and some other countries) due to the terms of the PSA joint-venture deal with the Japanese company.
“Our situation with Mitsubishi does not allow us to sell this car in this country, so we are discussing with them the possibility of some special arrangement. We will look at it and see what we can do,” he said.
On the environmental front, Peugeot will launch a 308 diesel-hybrid in 2010 (which will also come here) and from 2009 will introduce stop-start technology across a range of vehicles with both manual and automatic transmissions. Again, this technology will quickly follow here.
“Australia is the perfect country to use (this technology) because this is a major country and there is a specific sensitivity to environmental questions,” said Mr Schantz.
“All around the world, environmental factors are cost factors because it costs money (but) the second point is the sensibilities you have in different countries and I think this country has a high level of sensitivity for this kind of problem.”
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Melbourne show: Peugeot takes 308 TouringFirst look: Peugeot to reveal 308 Touring in Oz
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