PSA Group wants its newly acquired UK factories to improve competitiveness
Berlin — PSA Group is pushing the UK factories acquired in its deal for General Motors’ European operations to make a leap in competitiveness to offset the potential risks posed by Brexit. British Vauxhall plants, where production costs are about twice as high as the French vehicle maker’s domestic sites, face hurdles in either a hard or soft Brexit scenario, Carlos Tavares, PSA’s CEO, said in an interview in Berlin. If the UK reaches a trade deal with the EU as it departs the bloc, the plants will need to be competitive with facilities in continental Europe. Without a trade agreement, they will need to vie with factories overseas, he said in the interview at the Automobilwoche conference. Reviving the battered Vauxhall nameplate is probably the biggest challenge in PSA’s ambitious turnaround of GM’s former European operations, which were purchased earlier this year in a €2.2bn deal. While the plan includes prospects to export Opel vehicles into more than 20 new markets, Vauxhall re...
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