NEW DELHI: Italian-American carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and PSA Group, the French owner of Peugeot, are exploring a merger which can create one of the world’s biggest car groups. The talk between the two entities comes months after a failed merger talk between FCA and PSA’s French rival Renault.
“Following recent reports on a possible business combination between Groupe PSA and the FCA Group, Groupe PSA confirms there are ongoing discussions aimed at creating one of the world’s leading automotive groups,” PSA in a statement said. FCA too issued a similar statement later.
The Italian-American carmaker is pushing for greater consolidation in the automobile manufacturing sector as the industry faces major challenges such as moving away from polluting fossil fuels to green and autonomous technology.
When merged, the new entity will bring some popular brands such as Citroen, Jeep, Opel and Peugeot under one roof and take total sales of the entity close to sales of behemoth such Volkswagen, Toyota and the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
Earlier in the year, PSA Group had announced its re-entry in India with the Citroen brand. The first Citroen model for India is slated to go on sale before end-2021. In recent times, Japan’s Toyota Motor Corporation and Suzuki Motor Corporation joined hands to benefit from former’s strength in electric technologies and the latter’s strength in compact vehicles. Earlier this month, India’s Mahindra and Mahindra and American carmaker Ford announced creating a new joint venture to bring better synergy.
Experts associated with the automobile manufacturing industry believe huge investments for electrification and long gestation period, strict emission norms and autonomous driving technologies has led to an increased combination of resources.