Peugeot makes a come back in the Indian Market
Peugeot, French auto giant is all ready to enter the Indian market once again. The company had bid adieu to the same in the 1990s. Peugeot-Citrozen is, at this point, hunting for locations around India. One of the prospective site where the company looks forward to set up their plant is Tamil Nadu.
The French auto major Peugeot now wants to get its hands on the passenger car market in India which is currently growing at the rate of 10 million cars sold in a year, especially since its market share in Europe does not give a very rosy picture.
Rajeev Ranjan, principal secretary, industries department, government of Tamil Nadu confirmed the news and told a leading tabloid that they are discussing the matter with the company and said that the plant would be located near Chennai, ruling out the fact that Tamil Nadu could become its manufacturing hub. However he also said that nothing was finalised and that everything still stands at the discussion stage.
Insights on the investment front, plant's capacity or its location could not be gathered. Also, Peugeot could not be contacted for any comments on same. However sources revealed that the company was looking at a number of options from the assembly of imported units to setting up a plant in the outer regions of the city.
One thing that can be deciphered from this, is the fact that Peugeot would become the second French auto company after Renault Nissan to have its production facility in Chennai.
Chennai has soon become a manufacturing hub that houses major auto players such as Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Ford and BMW and accounts for the highest cars installation capacity i.e 10.80 lakh.
Giving an official stand point to the above analysis, M K Stalin, deputy Chief Minister said that Chennai would have the capacity to manufacture 12.8 lakh cars and round about 3.5 lakh commercial vehicles each year which boils down to three cars every minute and one commercial vehicle every 75 seconds.
The reason why Chennai has been in demand among auto players is the presence of an eco system that can sustain production at such a level. Another advantage is the availability of ancillary units and a large pool of talented engineers.