PSA Peugeot Citroen will bank on India as one of its key growth drivers to generate two-thirds of sales from beyond Europe by 2020. The others include China, Latin America and Russia.
At present, the global component of PSA's business is around 41 per cent and the company is working towards increasing this to 50 per cent by 2015.
In terms of volumes, this will translate into nearly 1.7 million units of which its two plants in China will account for nearly a million (4.2 lakh in 2011) units.
Latin America follows some way behind with its annual volumes in 2015 projected at four lakh (2.95 lakh in 2011) units. India is in the third spot with 1.7 lakh cars and surprisingly ahead of Russia (where PSA got in earlier and expects to wrap up this year with 45,000 units) with 1.25 lakh units in 2015.
It is amply clear from these projections that the French automaker will fast-track its India plans announced barely a couple of months ago. PSA will invest over Rs 4,000 crore in a new plant at Sanand, Gujarat (where its neighbours are Tata Motors and Ford) and the 2015 target of 1.7 lakh cars could mark the first phase of growth.
Considering that the company is looking to increase its non-Europe business to two-thirds by 2020, corresponding volumes in India could jump to over three lakh units. The country is also tipped to be the world's third largest automobile market by that time, behind the US and China.
Observers say PSA could even look at a stronger alliance with Mitsubishi to produce a global compact car for which India will be the base.
From the third quarter results declared in Paris on Wednesday, it is apparent that the company is dead serious about its globalisation agenda. Like most carmakers, it was quite content focusing on Europe for many years but recent realities on the slowdown coupled with the rapid emergence of China and India have prompted PSA to change its strategy.
The European crisis is also reflected in the company's results for January-September where sales in Spain and Italy have crashed by nearly 20 per cent and 11 per cent respectively with the UK down by three per cent.
Germany, quite predictably, bucked the trend and reported higher sales of over 11 per cent while home turf, France, was up by a mere 0.5 per cent. All in all, growth in Europe was zilch for the first nine months of this calendar.
In sharp contrast, China was up by nine per cent (on a large base of over four lakh units) with Latin America and Russia posting an increase of 11 per cent and 45 per cent each. Production has not kicked off in India yet but the fact that PSA is looking at 1.7 lakh units over the next four years is a clear reflection of its intent coupled with the long-tem goal of making India a vital base for its global operations.
This is a remarkable volte-face for a company which, in its first India outing, did not think twice about shutting shop abruptly just when it was emerging from what seemed a bottomless abyss.
Today, the dark days of 1995-97 are part of history as PSA gears up for its second innings here.