General Motors is to purchase a 7% stake in PSA?Peugeot Citroen, which will see the two manufacturers form an international alliance. The move will render GM the second-biggest stakeholder in Peugeot after the Peugeot family.
The companies have said that the initial stages of the relationship will see them focussing on small and medium cars, MPVs and crossovers as well as developing a new platform for low-emission vehicles. The first vehicle built on a shared GM/PSA platform is expected to launch by 2016.
The agreement will see the two firms sharing logistics and transportation programmes. GM will make use of Peugeot’s subsidiary logistics company, Gefco, which will run GM’s logistics operations in Europe and Russia.
Annual savings of around $2bn (£1.25bn) are expected from the move, which will theoretically help both companies to return to profitability after recent struggles in Europe.
