PSA’s Future On-Demand Services
PSA has already set aside €100m to invest in start-up companies working on transport innovations, ranging from car sharing and hailing to car-ownership clubs.
This month, the group will unveil a second tranche of investments at the Paris Motor Show.
PSA’s vehicle service, once launched, may operate under a new brand rather than the Peugeot, Citroen or DS marques currently used by the group.
It will also be launched in the US market before PSA resumes its core business of selling cars to consumers there.
This focus on “mobility” services is one of the pillars of the company’s strategy to grow in the future.
Carmakers globally have been grappling with the idea that hailing services will make people less inclined to buy their own vehicles.
By teaming up with Uber or Lyft, several carmakers have been positioning themselves to sell vehicles to those companies, shoring up a source of sales for the long term.
Carlos Tavares, chief executive of PSA group said that bulk sales deals would push down prices and put power in the hands of the technology groups, reducing the car manufacturers to mere providers of “hardware”.
“It would be for us dangerous not to be in contact on the front line with the consumer,” he warned.
He added that there will be a “segmentation” of services for riding on demand, which has not yet emerged — and that is why the group is keeping its options open. -FinancialTimes
