BRUSSELS--General Motors Co. and PSA Peugeot-Citroen Thursday
said they would consider opening up their cost-saving and
production-sharing alliance to other industrial partners in the
future, though for now they're focused on bedding down their
11-month-old partnership amid the continued slump in European auto
sales.
Faced with a European market that has sunk to its lowest level
in decades and isn't expected to revive to pre-crisis levels before
the end of the decade, GM and Peugeot are striving to make their
European operations profitable by generating annual synergies of at
least $1 billion for each company over the next five years.
The alliance between the two partners is chiefly focused on
Europe, where the synergies are easiest to realize, but the two
auto-makers are starting to look at opportunities for joint
industrial products in other parts of the world, notably Latin
America and Russia.
GM and Peugeot are already working to develop three types of
small vehicle that will be based on platforms designed by Peugeot.
A platform in automotive parlance is the basic underpinnings of a
vehicle that include the underbody, the suspension system, the
powertrain and its core electric and electronic systems, in short
anything in a car that isn't visible from the outside or
inside.
"These programs are primarily between us and (Peugeot-Citroen),
but we each have other partners, so to the extent that the other
partners could benefit from some of this leverage.. that's entirely
possible," said Stephen Girsky, GM Vice-Chairman.
However, opening up the alliance, "is not the base plan right
now," Mr. Girsky said.
Peugeot has industrial alliances with Toyota Motor Co. (TM) and
Mitsubishi Motors of Japan (7211.TO), Italy's Fiat (F.MI), Ford
Motor Co. (F), BMW AG (BMW.XE) and French rival Renault SA
(RNO.FR).
GM's partners include China's SAIC Motor Corp. (SAI) and Wuling
Automobile Co. (0305.HK).
Peugeot Chief Executive Philippe Varin said the GM-Peugeot joint
purchasing organization remains focused on Europe but could be
leveraged to other parts of the world.
The first vehicles to be produced by the alliance won't hit the
streets until 2016. Mr. Girsky and Mr. Varin said it's too early to
say where they will be assembled.
They said, while one partner or another may be advantaged at
certain times, the goal is to make the alliance balanced over its
lifetime in terms of intellectual property, development costs and
purchasing.
"It's not that any one program needs to be balanced, it's all
the programs, all the markets, the technologies and products that
will balance out over time," Mr. Girsky said, noting that the two
companies have created a governance board to ensure there's a broad
balance.
Write to David Pearson at dave.pearson@dowjones.com
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