Peugeot plans to launch its premium hatchback (SC21) in India by 2020; expected to be priced competitively thanks to local production
Peugeot is all set to comeback in India and the French car brand aims to roll out its first product in the country by 2020. Codenamed as SC21, this car is an upmarket hatchback that will lock horns against very popular Maruti Suzuki Swift. Also, it will challenge the Hyundai Grand i10 as well. What’s more interesting is the brand will roll out around 2-3 variants of the hatchback. In that case, can we be optimistic to see a sport variant too? Well, we have to wait to learn about that.
The car will be produced locally in the company’s Chennai plant and Peugeot’s parent group PSA has already placed order for the components that will be used for building four lakh models. One lakh among them will be manufactured in the country at Chennai facility. Rest of the models will be meant for overseas markets like Brazil and South Africa.
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Initially, it was widely though that Peugeot 3008 SUV will be the first product from the auto major to be launched in domestic market. But, now the company seems to have changed strategy and it aims to introduce a locally built product that will confront with popular and well established models available in India.
PSA has already tied up with top suppliers of the country like Motherson Sumi, Uno Minda, Spark Minda and Rance Group for the components it will need for building the cars here. Speaking about the upcoming cars from the brand, apart from SC21 hatchback, Peugeot will also roll out two more hatchbacks 208 and 308 along with two SUVs 2008 and 3008.
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Overall, it is clear that the French auto major is eying to grab a good share here with various models. Clearly a wide range of products in the popular segments like hatchback SUV will help the brand to grow faster, given they are priced competitively and cater the demands of the customers.
Upon launch, the Peugeot SC21 will be positioned in the compact hatchback category that is the second fastest growing segment in Indian auto market, right after compact SUV category. Compact hatchback segment grew by 11% in between April and October 2017.
Source: ET Auto