Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen to launch proprietary brand tomorrow

Shanghai September 20 (Gasgoo.com) Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co., Ltd. (DPCA), a joint venture between PSA Peugeot Citroen and China's Dongfeng Motor Corp, will launch its third brand in China on September 21, First Financial Daily reported Monday.

Unlike the Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot brand, the third one is actually a proprietary brand of the joint venture, Yves Moulin, general manager of Dongfeng Citroen, said in an interview at the opening ceremony of the Chengdu Auto Show on September 18.

Aside from the brand release, the company will also announce its new strategy towards the Chinese market tomorrow, including export expansion, embarking on construction of the third plant, import of more models and powertrain technologies.

Yves Moulin pointed out that the joint venture's third brand will have no direct relationship with the existing two brands. Therefore, DPCA will possibly develop the new brand independently but not rely on the Citroen and Peugeot technologies. 

PSA Peugeot Citroen saw its global sales drop 2.2% from a year earlier to 3.2 million units in 2009, while it reported sales growth of 52% year on year to 270,000 units in China. The French carmaker plans to further boost car sales in China in the next five years.

PSA is now in talks with Dongfeng Motor on exporting several Peugeot models including the 207 to Russia, aiming to expand sales and lower production costs. Moreover, PSA intends to build the third plant in China with capacity of 300,000 units, which will bring DPCA's total production capacity to 800,000 units per year.

With construction getting started, DPCA will import more models to the plant. The Peugeot 508 will be built there and is expected to go on sale in 2011. In addition, the company will largely upgrade its powertrain system. Besides the 1.4L, 1.6L and 2.0L engines, it will launch the 1.6L, 1.4L and other Turbo fuel stratified injection (TFSI) engines, and introduce a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to China.