PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV are exploring a partnership to share investments to build vehicles in Europe, people familiar with the talks said.
The French automaker and its Italian-US peer have been holding preliminary discussions to collaborate on a “super platform” — the basic underpinning of a vehicle model — to reduce their investment costs in the highly competitive region, said the people, who asked not to be named, as the matter is private.
Preliminary talks could be announced by the end of the first half of this year, one of the people said.
PSA chief executive officer Carlos Tavares earlier this month said that his firm was ready to seize opportunities for growth, less than a year after integrating the Opel and Vauxhall brands that it purchased from General Motors Co.
Fiat Chrysler chief executive officer Mike Manley said at the same time that he would “clearly look into” a deal that would make the Italian-US automaker stronger, including an alliance or a merger.
Any eventual partnership will likely include sharing investments for new electric vehicles, the people said.
Sale of electric vehicles is expected to boom globally to 60 million a year in 2040 from about 2.2 million this year, according to Bloomberg NEF estimates.
The partnership could eventually develop into a wider combination, although the current focus is on the limited cooperation, two of the people said.
A spokesman for PSA declined to comment, and referred to comments Tavares made to the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, when he said the company was not targeting a “specific” partner and is not engaged in “deep” negotiations to find a tie-up.
“We have continuous discussions with our partners,” Tavares told the Journal in response to a question about potential talks with Fiat. “There is no specific target — no specific, deep, ongoing negotiation.”
Separately, Nissan Motor Co then-chairman Carlos Ghosn and its chief executive officer last year considered bringing in a new partner for the alliance with Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp, and discussed possible acquisitions in China.
At the time, two months before his arrest in Tokyo, Ghosn was under pressure to make the three-way automobile alliance “irreversible.”
In an e-mail message to Ghosn seen by Bloomberg, Nissan chief executive officer Hiroto Saikawa wrote that he had been working over the summer “quietly by myself,” at his boss’ request.
In the correspondence, Saikawa raised the possibility of bringing in another manufacturer as a fourth partner for the alliance.
He did not identify any potential candidate.
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