Peugeot CEO: All PSA vehicles will be electrified by 2025

[DETROIT] Peugeot SA chief executive Carlos Tavares said on Wednesday that by 2025 "the PSA Group will be 100 per cent electrified," and said the French automaker will use the know-how of former Opel engineers acquired from General Motors Co to design vehicles for the US market that would compete in GM's home market.

Mr Tavares, speaking to the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit, said 80 per cent of the French automaker's vehicles will have the capability to navigate themselves under limited conditions by 2030, and 10 per cent will have "level four and level five" autonomy.

Auto industry executives use the term electrified to describe fully electric vehicles, and vehicles that use hybrid systems that combine battery systems and petroleum-fuelled engines.

Peugeot exited the US market more than 20 years ago. Mr Tavares, the former Renault-Nissan executive who took over the company in 2014, has outlined plans to slowly re-enter the US market, starting with ride services.

Last year, Mr Tavares acquired GM's European Opel operation after GM decided to divest the money-losing operation.

Mr Tavares on Wednesday outlined a three-step process for re-establishing Peugeot in the US market, the world's second largest.

Peugeot already is beginning to offer ride services in the United States through its Free2Move brand, using other companies' cars. Next, Mr Tavares said, will come ride services using Peugeot cars. The third step will be to start offering Peugeot vehicles designed with Opel engineers who worked designing vehicles for GM that were sold in the United States.

Opel engineers can "ensure the future products for this market will be fully US compliant" not just from a regulatory standpoint, but also with consumer tastes, Mr Tavares said.

REUTERS