PSA Groupe is on a mission to return to the U.S. market and has selected Atlanta, Georgia, as its settling place for a new North American headquarters. Following the announcement, PSA Groupe said the new space should be operational in about a month.
PSA owns the Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Vauxhall brands. The latter two are the company’s latest additions after purchasing GM’s European operations in 2017. With Opel and Vauxhall, PSA jumped to become the second-largest vehicle conglomerate in Europe behind VW Group.
The southern portion of the U.S. continues to attract automakers for operations and vehicle plants. Notably, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche also call Atlanta home. Numerous other automakers operate manufacturing plants in the south as well including Kia, Honda, Nissan and Volkswagen.
A previous report pegged the Opel acquisition as a turning point for PSA. Now, the French automaker has asked Opel engineers to return to their roots after decades of GM ownership and help the automaker engineer its latest cars to meet U.S. regulations. Opel engineers spent quite a bit of time on cars suited for the U.S. market, which gives PSA a handy advantage.
PSA CEO, Carlos Tavares, said in an interview earlier this month that he’d like to see his company sell vehicles in the U.S. again by 2026. The brand used for the automaker’s re-entry is still to be determined, but Opel seems like a leading candidate.
Comments
One of the advantages of being new to a market you can locate where ever you like based on weather, cost of living, wages and tax breaks.
But coming here is not going to be easy in a very competitive market with slow to little growth.
Their pricing will be key. Hyundai did it by undercutting Toyota and Honda prices with cars almost as good. Not sure if that will work here. Just have to sit back and watch.
Got to admit PSA cars seldom are on the list of cars we wish we could buy but can’t. They need to create a reason to love them.
This sounds more like PSA just renting an P.O Box in the greater Atlanta area.
Hard to tell.
Porsche and MB have their US headquarters there, so there’s already a multi-lingual talent pool. State of Georgia giving some inducements – and relatively easy direct flights from Atlanta to European destinations…
Makes some sense …
Perhaps they will move into Saab’s old offices in Norcross.
Should Opel return it will be interesting to see if both Buick and Opel wear the same front facadias?
Did GM work out which company owns the rights to the L shaped LED daytime lamps and elements surrounding the logo?