Peugeot Looks to Move Up Ranks, But U.S. Comeback Unlikely for Now

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GENEVA – The Peugeot brand is the ninth most popular in the world, and the auto maker aims to move up to No.7 by 2015.

Growth is expected to come from improving sales in China, a new plant in India and increasing volume in the Mediterranean basin, where Peugeot has a reputation and a history.

What about the second-largest market in the world, where it also has a history and maintains a small office in the New York area?

“You can’t be a major player in the world if you don’t know what is happening in the United States,” says Vincent Rambaud, general manager of the Peugeot brand. “Sometimes it is a model, and sometimes a model for what not to do. It is instructive for us to explain what is going on there.”

As for a return to selling cars, “it is not excluded,” but it is not in anyone’s current planning.

With the exchange rate at E1:$1.39, there is no profit in exporting cars from Europe, and with a factory and dealer network to build in India, “we have other things to work on,” Rambaud says.