Automotive News Europe - December 2017 - Talk from the Top Supplement - 23

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

TALK FROM THE TOP

simple: You are French, you are German,
now please work together to find a way
to be as complementary as you can to
cover the marketplace in an efficient
manner. Brand positioning is something
that comes from the heart, so people
need to breathe the brand. Opel is a German brand with a long history, Vauxhall
is a British brand with a long history. Let
them breathe. Let them express what
they feel is most important in their DNA.
Then, when it comes to business, let's
see if there is any overlap or problems in
the positioning.
How does Opel fit into PSA's plans for
the U.S. market?
What we have done so far is that we are
already operating as a mobility service
provider with our partners. We have created a small team to manage the business in North America, based in Atlanta.
We are engineering the next generation
of our cars to be U.S. compliant with
the support of Ruesselsheim r&d center, which means that from three or four
years down the road we'll be able to
push the button if we decide to do so.
Therefore, we are on our way. But as you
know, in this chaotic world we are not in
a hurry. We'll take our time.

With the purchase of Opel, you are
stronger in Europe but also more dependent on it as it accounts for about
70 percent of sales. What steps are you
taking to become more international?
I don't think there is anything wrong with
being a strong European player. But, it is
true that we are highly dependent on Europe in terms of profitability. All global automakers have to have a strong national/
regional footprint to expand worldwide.
Currently, we are moving very quickly in
Africa and the Middle East. In Iran, we
have very strong growth and very strong
manufacturing plans, both for Peugeot and
Citroen. We are starting a new venture in
India, where we have two plants, one is a
car plant and one is a powertrain plant now
under construction. We are growing in Eurasia and we are growing in Latin America.
We are facing serious operational issues in
China. This is one of our headaches. We
are preparing for the future in North America with the mobility services, and preparing the compliance of our products for that
market in a few years.

How long does Opel have to achieve
a lower breakeven point and reach
profitability?
I worked for five years in Japan, where
I learned what it means to be resilient
and what it means to be persistent. We
are very patient, but status quo is not
an option due to Opel's current situation. The most important thing is that we
trust people, and that we believe people
are the solution and not the problem.
We think it will take a few years, but it's
absolutely doable with the quality of the
people I have seen so far.

What does making Russelsheim a
center of global competence mean
for all engineering in PSA Group?
We are very lucky. We have very strong
engineering in Germany on one side,
and very strong engineering in France
on the other side, at the precise moment
when we are faced with a very difficult
challenge, which is to put Opel/Vauxhall back on the road map in terms of
CO2 compliance. The teams from PSA
and Opel completely rebuilt the product planning and technology strategy to
put Opel on track to meet the European
regulations by 2020. This is an outstanding achievement and demonstrates the
collaboration between the French and
German engineering teams.

Some people with knowledge of
Opel's engineering and manufacturing have said that the turnaround
plan for the company could be perceived as arrogant. What is your response?
It doesn't matter. What matters is what
kind of solution we need to bring to the
Opel employees. This perception -- which
is not my intention -- might come from
the fact that we are passionate about fixing this significant problem. If bringing a
solution in a highly passionate way with
a lot of determination is perceived that
way, if this is the price to pay to protect
the Opel employees, so be it.

The trend toward autonomy is taking control away from the driver, for
better or worse. How do you keep the
passion in the automotive business if
you cannot drive the car yourself?
We are going to adapt the way you can
use the car to enhance the experience.
For example, when you are on the highway with a lot of traffic density, you are
not enjoying the drive. Even if you are
a racecar driver, you would prefer to
be in autonomous mode so you could
talk with your wife and children or look
at your emails or read a magazine. The
car will give you back quality time. Conversely, when you are on a small road on

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the countryside, you can drive the car
yourself, and you will enjoy the experience and feel the rigor and the precision
of your chassis, for example.
Consumer behavior with regards to
automobile ownership and use is
changing very fast, but at different
rates in rural villages and big cities,
and among continents and countries.
How is PSA preparing for this?
The world is not moving in a homogeneous way. We will have to have different mobility devices for urban areas, the
countryside and for long-distance travel.
I believe that the market is going to continue to fragment, which also means
that it makes sense for the PSA Group to
have two legs: A cutting-edge, efficient
carmaker from one side, a preferred mobility supplier from the other. The synergies are in the fact that we need to imagine the mobility devices that are going to
meet expectations from different kinds
of customers.
Do you think being a racecar driver
gives you an edge in business?
It gives me the ability to have a good dialogue with many, many people in the company. When we test a car, for example,
we can have a dialogue, saying this oversteers here, this understeers here, the
steering is not linear enough, I would like
less friction on the gearshift, or I would
like the brakes to be a little more biting at
the beginning of the stroke. If employees
think that the top management level understands what they are doing, they will
be even more motivated to unleash their
own power and their own skills.
You have a background as an engineer. As a racer you've driven many
different cars, in many different conditions and at many different tracks.
How does that influence the development of your models?
To your big surprise, in a limited way.
My job as a CEO is not to give engineers
direction in the way they should tune
the car, in the way they should do this
or that. My job is to ensure that inside
the company each person can unleash
his full potential, and make sure that his
creative power is full throttle. I try - and
this is not always possible because I am
so passionate about it - not to be directive because we are not making cars for
me, we are making cars for consumers.
Therefore, it would be counterproductive
to think that I have the vision of what the
car should be. ANE

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