PSA awards a new compact car from Peugeot to its Rennes plant

PSA Peugeot-Citroën has announced that it will invest ninety million euros in its Rennes-la-Janais plant so that a new model can roll off its assembly lines. It will be a compact car in the C-segment, based on the modular EMP2 platform that also underpins the Citroën C4 Picasso and the Peugeot 308. Assembly will begin in mid-2016, according to the French group.

PSA’s plan is for the new compact to replace the Peugeot 5008 when it goes on sale at the end of that same year. Annual output of this vehicle will grow from 2017 onwards to 70,000 units, so that the Rennes plant exceeds 100,000 cars produced per year. In 2012, 120,000 vehicles came off the assembly lines at that facility, but a PSA spokesperson stated that this figure will fluctuate between 100,000 and 150,000 vehicles up to 2016.

Given that the maximum production capacity of the Rennes-la-Janais plant is 180,000 to 200,000 units a year, its utilisation over these three years will be low. The future compact will help bring that proportion back up to the 75-80% that experts calculate a plant needs in order to be profitable.

The official statement also recalls that this model is the one promised by PSA’s chief executive, Philippe Varin, in November 2012. For its part, the group points out that this is its way of fulfilling its commitment to invest in French factories to produce its next cars, although it should not be forgotten that in October it closed the Aulnay plant.

Via | Automotive News