Not only will PSA Groupe become the second largest auto conglomerate behind Volkswagen when it takes full control of Opel and Vauxhall at the end of 2017, but it may have a bonus attached to the acquisition.
Reuters reports PSA’s decision to purchase Opel and Vauxhall—a deal that includes Opel and Vauxhall factories across Europe—may have swayed Toyota-owned Aisin to choose the French automaker as a manufacturing partner. Aisin, which supplies automatic transmissions, is currently seeking a European production base amid a growing demand for automatics. Europe has typically been a stronghold for manual transmissions, but they’re beginning to become less popular with buyers.
With the additional factory capacity from Opel, PSA is said to be in talks to build automatic transmissions for Aisin. The Japanese company initially reportedly was skeptical of a deal, but the increased scale has swayed opinions, according to unnamed sources.
Assembling the automatic transmissions would also give PSA a competitive advantage and help fill out production capacity. Altogether, it would be an excellent reward for its $2.44 billion spent on Opel and its operations.
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