New pickup to be part of an aggressive expansion push, probably through Toyota partnership.
While at the launch of the Citroen Dispatch and Peugeot Expert vans yesterday, Denis Martin (CEO of PSA Europe) and Maxime Picat (CEO of Peugeot) let slip that the group has plans to enter the pick-up market and that an official annoucement is planned for next week.
It’s an overall interesting development that seemingly came out of thin air and a barrage of questions toward the two CEOs at the rather unglitzy unveiling of two new commercially-aimed vans.
As reported by UK’s Autocar, next week PSA Peugeot Citroen is slated to reveal its six-year plan to stimulate intense growth, an effort they’ve dubbed ‘Push to Pass’ as a passing reference to the overboost functions available in some sports cars. Sure enough, that expansion plan also includes a new pick-up truck.
Peugeot had released the Hoggar, a front-wheel drive ute based on the 207 that was sold in the South American market, but we hope they won’t use that as a reference.
The Autocar report continues to speculate on how that plan to materialise a pick-up offering quickly, positing that they’re likley to partner with Toyota to co-develop this new model. The Japanese automotive juggernaut has good dealings with the French group, as it will be manufacturing its Proace van as cousin to the just-unveiled Citroen Dispatch / Peugeot Expert.
Assuming that the upcoming French pickup will borrow a fair bit from the Toyota Hilux, we can expect it to face competition from the game’s usual suspects such as the Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton, and Nissan NP300 Navara.
Fellow french rival Renault has also expressed interest in fielding its own newly-developed full size pickup with the debut of the Alaskan Concept at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show, with a predicted release somewhere in 2017. Prior to that, Renault brought out their smaller Duster Oroch pickup.
Renault has a powerful ally in sister company Nissan, too, which would explain the impetus by PSA Peugeot Citroen to counter with their own offering.
