The lion wants to roar out of Europe

Linda Jackson, CEO of Peugeot.

Until a few months ago, Peugeot's leadership was not in question. On the contrary, it was the flagship brand of the PSA group by volume, but also by its ability to align itself in the upper-middle range and to provide the best profitability per vehicle sold. But the birth of Stellantis, following the pairing of the French group with the Italian-American FCA to forge another automotive giant, has turned the tables. Its prominence has been diluted. His new brothers Jeep and Fiat, two of the 14 brands included in the industrial conglomerate, last year sold more cars than the lion's banner (1.1 million vehicles, after a 22% drop due to the covid) and the new Group priorities have modified Peugeot's plans for the future: it continues to be forced to grow,but it has been left without the possibility of doing so in the vast market of the United States, where the Stellantis management wants to bet on the Italian brand Alfa Romeo, taking advantage of its current presence there.

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Linda Jackson, one of the executives called to reduce the tiny female presence in the motor industry, will be in charge of leading this new stage in the company, after she was appointed CEO last January after having been at the helm of Citröen since 2018. In his new role, Jackson sees no problems in how the formation of the new Stellantis constellation, currently the most powerful French brand in terms of sales volume, can affect Peugeot: “We are in the upper tier of the big brands, with a very well defined position, and we are a global brand with the sole exception of not being in the United States.

I don't think ours is going to be a problem for brands competing with each other within the group ”.

After the merger, it is time to compete outside doors, not inside doors

In his opinion, Peugeot will continue in the "cockpit" of the group, marking the strategic lines, but underlines that the question now is "to compete outside, not inside." For her, the merger, more than elbows between brothers, should bring "benefits by sharing platforms and achieving savings in terms of purchasing supplies, technology and even distribution."

And the executive defends the behavior that the manufacturer has had in a "chaotic" market and in free fall due to the impact of the coronavirus.

"Despite the confinement, we have obtained excellent results in terms of market share," he says.

From the words of Jackson, who attends EL PAÍS through a Teams session, it can be deduced that the company will fight in the coming years a new battle to break the corset that still has it fixed in its European fort, where it concentrates the 81 % of your sales.

“We are very strong in Europe and we need to continue being so, but we have to be more international.

There are many opportunities around the world ”, says this English directive.

Range of vans

To get out of that shell, the brand has thought about South America and the Middle East and South Africa, for which it is developing a new range of station wagons that it believes can become the launch ramp of the brand.

The other challenge is that of the world's largest car market, China.

Peugeot knows him, but not for the better.

It barely sold 25,600 vehicles last year (down 50%).

This market has never finished working for him, like other western brands since local manufacturers began to gain market share in 2015. Carlos Tavares, Stellantis's chief executive officer, pointed this out a few months ago: the strategy must be changed after the failure .

And Linda Jackson seems to have picked up the glove.

"Let's be honest, we haven't done well in China and we have to start from scratch," says the CEO.

"We are rebuilding and putting plans in place to stabilize the situation."

Let's be honest, we haven't done well in China.

You have to start from scratch

Peugeot is looking for a new opportunity, despite the fact that its initial landing dates back 40 years. Now, the company has begun to design specific models for that Asian market, while it has also updated other existing ones and is finalizing the opening of a reference store in Shanghai to make its brand more visible. “We have to be humble because our bet there has not worked. Do we listen to Chinese customers? ”He asks rhetorically when reminded of the reasons for the continued failure in China. "We did not react quickly enough to change, we did not move with the times and we were complacent," he argues on the reasons that have determined that China has become an investment well without results, despite having an ally in the local partner Dongfeng.

Now, Jackson calls for calm: “We are learning, but we are going to take a while to fix the situation, because this is not done overnight. You have to rebuild the entire base ... it's not a three-day job. It is long term ”. China is the big bet after the United States has been ruled out, ruling out that Jackson assumes for the new group strategy. "We will focus on the brands that are already there," he says, without ever mentioning Alfa Romeo. Peugeot had a plan to return to the United States, as evidenced by the fact that the predecessor in the position of CEO, Jean-Philippe Imparato, has assumed the reins of the Italian brand, which has also signed who had to be the responsible for leading that market for Peugeot.

Jackson defends the electrification model that Peugeot is opting for, which draws on the strategy set by the PSA group: a joint platform for the different types of motorization with the intention of being able to adapt in an agile way to the changes that the market undergoes. “We are moving very fast when it comes to electrification, but we are also moving at the pace of the customers. It is what we need to do ”. It assumes that they should have on the table the fines that the European Union has marked for those brands that do not reduce the parameters set for the average emissions of the vehicles sold, but it also recognizes that they have to provide solutions to the prohibitions of combustion engines that cities around the world are embracing. Hence, he says,that from 2025 all new models will have an electric version. But without temporary mandatory zero emissions targets.