After these first months with the Léon brand and his extensive experience in the automotive sector, he offers us his vision of the León manufacturer itself, as well as of the future of the car, including a 100% electric vehicle fleet.
Linda Jackson was appointed as general manager of the Peugeot brand a few months ago, a new position she took on as an “even more exciting challenge”, as
after his departure from Citroën, marked the arrival of the launch of the Stellantis group. After these first months and his extensive experience in the automotive sector, he offers us his vision of the León manufacturer itself, as well as of the future of the car, including a 100% electric vehicle fleet.
What we are doing at Peugeot, which is part of Stellantis, is to ensure that we comply with these regulations by introducing 100% electric by 2025, i.e. all our models will have an electrified version this year. We are already at 80% and as far as our commercial vehicles are concerned, they already have an electric version for 100%.
But at the same time, governments and legislation must ensure that there is the necessary infrastructure to support this, because this is a problem. Regardless of whether we are in the market, it is one of the big questions that we as citizens have to ask people who are in politics.
Peugeot is also in a global market, and it is very focused on Europe. So we have to make sure that we keep up with the speed of these markets which are not as advanced as the European ones. Therefore, Peugeot must have a European perspective, but at the same time, if I want the brand to grow, I must also focus on other markets, such as cars with combustion engines.
Spain is the second largest country for Peugeot, with France number one as it is the birthplace of the brand; but Spain has the 8% market share it represented at the end of April, since then it has been essential for Peugeot from a commercial point of view. And from an industrial point of view it is also very important. In the Vigo factory that we will be producing in 2008, the Rifter, the Partner… that is, they remain very important factories within the Peugeot and Stellantis strategy. Of course, as long as they are factories that, as they are today, are characterized by their efficiency and because they are really good.
This is a crisis associated with the issue of Covid, the rise in raw material prices and the manufacturers who are succeeding, including Peugeot because we have a good market share, so we have to be agile and find solutions. We don’t know when the microchip crisis will end, so what we’re trying to do is to be very agile and not just in terms of chips, but agile in our day-to-day practice, with our factories, to find other chips; and see in the long term what it has to do with investments and that Peugeot, within Stellantis, has the long-term strategy in control at a vertical level. In other words, it will ultimately be the agility of the business.
I think in the last 10 years it has made great efforts to become a great premium generalist and we have had a lot of success and we want to continue in that position that sets us apart from other Stellantis brands and gives us the opportunity, within the Group , other brands also have a different positioning. This move to move into a more premium market has brought us success and we want to keep that position, and it has also proved very successful in Spain, so it is a solution that has been very successful and we want to continue with it.
A very good question, which in fact focuses not only on Peugeot, but also on the incentives given by the government to make buying an electric car easier; and I think we have to look at two parts: from a Peugeot point of view, first of all it is very important that we have a fully electrified range in Europe, available to our customers from 2025, and since Peugeot is part of a larger group , Stellantis, we are committed to reducing the cost of electric cars by 40% by 2030 and also to have a 100% electric mix for Europe by that year. In other words, it is a very big commitment for us to have to reduce costs, but it is also good that the government is also helping in this effort to electrify the mobile fleet in Europe.
Let’s also forget that as part of Stellantis, Peugeot has access to a range of mobility solutions, Free2Move, carsharing… we can offer different things and offers so that people do not necessarily have to have a car. In other words, there are other forms of mobility for customers, and it is essential that we keep in mind that Peugeot has the capacity to offer them. In Spain we even have the electric 208 as part of this Free2Move, which helps people to access this type of car without having to buy it.
Yes of course. Ultimately it’s about adapting, being agile and having as many Peugeots on the road as possible and that people have access to the brand. We have been working and adapting for 211 years so that our customers can have a Peugeot, of course. And when we talk about Peugeot, we are not just talking about sales, but also about mobility as a whole.
Great question, but impossible to answer because I have no idea. Maybe age has something to do with it, of course, because those under 25 prefer car sharing, and the research we’ve reached shows us that from that age, with a family, they still prefer access to a car , so I can’t answer perfectly, it’s fantastic, but I can’t. And that’s why we want to have all these features so that maybe time will tell what the best solution is.
We are always looking to the future and we are going to reveal something. A few days ago we showed the new 408 that is going to be released, we are going to unveil it openly in June and it will get a completely new Peugeot silhouette. We are not going to replace any model, it will be completely new, and here we are going to offer a totally different concept in terms of the silhouette of the car and it will be very surprising and in line with the Peugeot brand concept.
Motorsport is very important to us, the Peugeot sports cars and hypercars, because it is a laboratory of ideas, that is, we use Peugeot Sport to generate new technologies, for example with hybrids, electrification, suspension… in cars in which you and I drive. So this classification is very important because it is a technology laboratory. The 508 PSE, Peugeot’s flagship, is a link between Peugeot Sport and the cars we drive. And the fact that this model is a hybrid is very important, that it is not a combustion engine car, because we are already on board and we are going full throttle in our electrification strategy.
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
