PSA Group may reconsider its plans to re-enter the U.S. market with the Peugeot brand following the imminent completion of the merger between Fiat Chrysler and PSA, which will give the newly formed company an established presence in the country, Peugeot CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato said.
PSA’s strategic plan calls the French automaker to return to U.S. retail sales by 2026, and in 2019 the group’s CEO, Carlos Tavares, said the brand would be Peugeot, which left that market in the early 1990s. Peugeot is PSA's top-selling brand. Its other marques are Opel, Citroen and the upscale DS Autos.
Tavares will be the CEO of the merged company, Stellantis, which will include FCA’s American brands Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler. Jeep and Ram in particular have been highly profitable with their lineups of pickups and SUVs.
But the merger, to be completed Saturday with listings on the Paris, Milan and New York stock exchanges early next week, has made that plan less certain, Imparato told British journalists in an online discussion on Thursday.