PSA Peugeot Citroën steps up new energy pace in China
- Source: Global Times
- [01:59 December 21 2009]
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The Shanghai center develops cars directly for Chinese consumers without adapting existing products from its headquarters. It also has a global- level functional design studio and is also PSA's first such facility outside France.
Currently the center employs 300 engineers, technicians and designers, and PSA plans to enlarge the staff to 550 by 2012. It will also design car models for other markets, according to Vajsman.
PSA has signed a cooperation agreement with Tongji University in Shanghai on R&D.
"We are also glad to cooperate with other research institutions in China to develop clean technologies, especially electric vehicles," Claude Vajsman said.
The company will also introduce at least six new petrol engines in China by 2020. They will save fuel, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent, and develop new generations of automatic gearboxes, as well as reduce vehicle weight and adopt "green" tires.
The Hybride4 technology, which will be put into use in 2011, is expected to be introduced to China before 2015. The new technology, which describes the hybridization of a traditional engine with an electric motor, in an original layout in engineering terms that also allows the possibility of four-wheel drive, is expected to see a 35 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions with an improvement in fuel efficiency.
PSA's strategy runs alongside the growing demand of the world's largest automobile market. China surpassed the US to become the world's largest automobile market in 2009, with sales of locally made vehicles amounting to 12.3 million units in the first 11 months of the year.
Statistics from PSA show that the company sold 3.26 million vehicles around the world in 2008, amounting to 54.4 billion. Its Chinese business experienced an 82 percent year-on-year increase in the third quarter of 2009.
As early as 2007, PSA set a mid-term sales target of 1 million units in China by 2015, with a market share of 5 to 6 percent.
"We believe that the cars of the 21st century will be born in China, the cradle of the future automobile industry," Vajsman said.
