Automotive News Europe - December 2019 - S30

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

TALK FROM THE TOP

Range expansion
Peugeot chief leads push to electrify, diversity brand's lineup

eugeot, PSA Group's best-selling
brand, is making a rapid transition
toward electrification. Leading the way
are the full-electric versions of the next
generation of the 208 small hatchback
and 2008 subcompact SUV, and plugin hybrid versions of the 3008 compact
SUV and 508 midsize fastback sedan. At
the same time, Peugeot is broadening
its lineup by adding a pickup truck and
performance models. CEO Jean-Philippe
Imparato spoke with Automotive News
Europe Associate Publisher and Editor
Luca Ciferri and Correspondent Peter
Sigal about how the brand is changing.
Peugeot showed the 508 Sport Engineered concept, a high-performance
four-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid, at the
Geneva auto show this year. What is
the future of high-performance vehicles at Peugeot?
The 508 Sport Engineered will be released
next year, with orders opening in March,
and the first one will be delivered in October 2020. There will be a sedan and a
station wagon, as part of a line of high-performance vehicles. I think it will be a success, because the total cost of ownership
(TCO) of this car - with 360 hp, four-wheel
drive and emissions of less than 50 grams
of CO2 per kilometer - will be only 300 euros a month more than the standard 508
plug-in hybrid. It will be the first Peugeot to
have more than 300 hp. For us it's a way
to send two messages: That we are ready
technologically for the future, and also that
we don't want the future to be boring.
Will there still be a GTi range?
No, this is our top level. This car is something I have been targeting for years, and
I know that Jean-Marc Finot (the head of
PSA Motorsport, which helped develop
the 508 Sport Engineered) has been
looking forward to it. That is because
if you want to build a future in motor
sports you have two constraints. First, it
must be electrified, because no one will
understand why, if the whole automobile
market is switching to electric, that racing series aren't. And second, it must not
be dependent on sponsors - it needs to
generate its own money. Developing and
selling this type of car will create profits

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Meet the boss
❚ NAME: Jean-Philippe Imparato
❚ TITLE: Peugeot brand CEO
❚ AGE: 53
❚ MAIN CHALLENGE:

Electrifying Peugeot's lineup
to help meet tougher EU
emissions targets.

Something is clearly changing -- lots
of customers are
now asking for electric.

about 250 million euros. We decided
that we needed to deal with the shift to
electrification first. After that we will see
Peugeot's E-Legend electric, autonoif
it's worth spending the money. But all
mous coupe concept inspired by the
the
elements are in place to say, "yes."
504 Coupe from the 1970s was also
very well received. Could you build that? You have a very tightly focused lineIt was a great message for us, but to up now, with SUVs and conventional
go into series production would cost us variants in the small, compact and
that will help support the racing team,
like AMG does for Daimler, for example.

In Partnership with

2019

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Automotive News Europe - December 2019

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