French car major Peugeot is ready to re-enter the Indian market which it left in the late 1990s. It anticipates good sales due to availability of cheap car loans. Peugeot-Citroen is presently scouting locations throughout the country, to establish a manufacturing plant.
State government officials of TN acknowledged the development. Rajeev Ranjan, principal secretary, industries department, government of Tamil Nadu said, “We are in discussions with the company. The plant would be located near Chennai. Everything is still at the discussion stage at this moment.”
The information about the size of investment, intended capacity or location of the plant is unavailable. Peugeot was also not available for a comment.
Sources said that Peugeot was considering numerous alternatives, from assembling imported parts to establishing a complete factory.
If the plant is established near Chennai, it would make Peugeot, the 2nd French major to enter Tamil Nadu after Renualt-Nissan.
Chennai also houses Hyundai, Ford, Mitsubishi and BMW and presently has the largest established capacity of cars in India – 10.80 lakh.
Deputy chief minister M K Stalin had said, “Chennai will have capacity to produce 12.8 lakh cars and about 3.5 lakh commercial vehicles each year. This translates to an output of three cars every minute and one commercial every 75 seconds.”