Peugeot CEO Promises A Return To The United States

Khodrocar - Buyers in the United States might eventually be able to hit the road in a new Peugeot, Citroën, or DS vehicle – at least if Peugeot CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato gets his wish. Don't start shopping for 208 GTI or DS3 yet, though, because the models are still many years away from entering the country.

Imparato told Dutch site AutoRAI that Peugeot would eventually return to the U.S., but it might not be the first PSA brand to arrive in the country. The company is still deciding which division is right to launch there first. Earlier rumors suggested that DS was the likely choice.

PSA has been taking tentative steps at a return to the American market. Last year, the company hired TrueCar and Nissan executive Larry Dominique to be Senior Vice President of PSA North America. At the time, he told Automotive News:  "This is a 10-year project. It’s not about jumping in and creating market share as quickly as possible.”

The first PSA vehicles in the United States might not be for sale. Instead, the automaker's initial step at returning to the country is through a car sharing service called Free2Move. This company currently aggregates offerings from services like Car2go, Zipcar, Spin, Limebike, and Ofo by displaying all of the available vehicles onto a single map. In the future, Free2Move would offer PSA models, too. This strategy gets the automaker into the country without the necessity of creating a full sales network first.

PSA's brands haven't been available in the United States for decades. Peugeot launched in the country in 1960 and offered a smattering of vehicles from its lineup through 1991. Citroën fled the market in 1974.