Peugeot Citroen has begun evaluating locations for its car project in India. It has kicked off negotiations with the Andhra Pradesh government that has offered to allocate around 800 acres of land near Hyderabad.
The company is understood to be looking at an investment of Rs. 1,500 crore for the project. Tamil Nadu is also on the company’s radar, amid expectations that Peugeot will roll-out low cost cars in emerging markets like India by 2010. It is also not clear whether the French auto major will bring in the Peugeot or the Citroen brand first.
“Decisions on product portfolio is expected to be taken after the finalisation of the location. But, the company intends to launch both Peugeot and Citroen products in a limited timespan,” said a person familiar with the development.
“We had a proposal sometime back from Peugeot for setting up a facility to make cars here. It was offered land that was earlier offered to the Tata Nano project. Although the first round of evaluation was done, the company is yet to furnish a detailed project report. A team is scheduled to visit Hyderabad in mid-June,” B Sam Bob, principal secretary industries told.
“We are evaluating several locations across India and a team from Peugeot is expected in the country in the second week of June to take a decision on the location,” said a senior Peugeot India official.
Some of the models sold by Peugeot internationally are Peugeot 107, Peugeot 207, Peugeot 308, Peugeot 407, and Peugeot 4007. Citroen sells models like Citroen C1, Citroen C2, Citroen C3, Citroen C4, Citroen C5, Citroen C6.
Source: Economic Times