Auto India, Car India

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PSA Peugeot Citron, the French car maker laid the foundation stone of its 4,000 crore facility at Sanad in Gujarat. The agreement between the company and the Gujarat government was signed about two months ago.

The first car will enter the market from this plant by mid-2014. This plant at Sanad will be made on an area of about 600 acre plot and will have a capacity to produce about 1.7 lakh cars initially. By 2016 the capacity of the plant will be increased to 3.4 lakh. The company also plans to produce gasoline engines and gear boxes in this facility. About 100 acres out of the 600 acres will be utilized by the vendors that the company will work with.

After the slump in the European market, Peugeot is now exploring the markets of the developing nations like Russia, India, Latin America, and China. The CEO of Asian operations, Gregoire Oliver remarked that Peugeot wanted to become a “global player” and the Indian market was an important place where it wanted to make its presence felt.

The company plans to introduce its 508 model in the D-segment. However, the company will slowly shift its focus to the B and C segment cars, because the country’s 80% of the market comprises of cars from this segment. The company wants to make cars that are not just fuel efficient, but also suited for the Indian market

Fredric Fabre, the Managing Director of PCA Motors India said, “Indian auto componants industry is very mature and we will have 80% of indigenization in the initial stage and is likely to grow.”  There are plans to set up a network of dealerships across the country. By 2014, about 160 dealers are expected to join this network. The company is looking forward to outsource auto components. As many as 20 vendors attended the stone laying ceremony of the company.

The infrastructure of the new facility will be the same as that of Europe. The company has already started hiring for India operations and some of them have even started receiving training at the French facility. Peugeot will bring its diesel and petrol variants in the country. It has already made alliance with BMW for gasoline engines and with Ford Motors for diesel engines.

With the production of so many cars in India, the country is all set to become the third largest car market in the world, after US and China.