Peugeot agrees to buy vauxhall

[the_bloke]

Vauxhalls are just Opels with different badges on, I'm always surprised they didn't shut down all the Vauxhall plants back in the 80s when they started merging the models and binning the 'proper' Vauxhall cars/sheds.

[biotechpete]

Agreed. But perhaps an independent UK will have lower regulatory compliance costs overall.

 

Given that we now pool regulatory costs with EU nations, and we will now require our own set of regulators, the costs to the UK will almost certainly increase.

 

There is an argument that we can remove regulation (a lot of which we proposed or supported within the EU), but an extent of equivalence will be required for any goods exported to the EU under any FTA.

[Obelix]

Agreed. But perhaps an independent UK will have lower regulatory compliance costs overall.

 

Not selling into the EU it wont - it'll still have to meet EU regulatory compliance.

 

---------- Post added 06-03-2017 at 14:52 ----------

 

Vauxhalls are just Opels with different badges on, I'm always surprised they didn't shut down all the Vauxhall plants back in the 80s when they started merging the models and binning the 'proper' Vauxhall cars/sheds.

 

Sheds. For sure.

 

Actually no. My garden shed took a lot longer to rot away then the Viva I bought!

[unbeliever]

Not selling into the EU it wont - it'll still have to meet EU regulatory compliance.

 

Sure. But don't cars already have to meet multiple international standards in practice? There can be reduced compliance costs elsewhere in the business.

[alchresearch]

Considering what little assets Vauxhall has for Peugeot - possibly the engines because the PRINCE one was a disaster, and maybe the work Vauxhall has already done on electric vehicles (although the Nissan LEAF appears to be the leader) - I think this is little more than buying the competition to eliminate it from the market.

 

But that strikes me as odd, because its been a lame duck for some time, and would have died of natural causes eventually.

[unbeliever]

Considering what little assets Vauxhall has for Peugeot - possibly the engines because the PRINCE one was a disaster, and maybe the work Vauxhall has already done on electric vehicles (although the Nissan LEAF appears to be the leader) - I think this is little more than buying the competition to eliminate it from the market.

 

But that strikes me as odd, because its been a lame duck for some time, and would have died of natural causes eventually.

 

I don't think the Leaf is the leader any more. The BMW i3 and the Renault Zoe are storming ahead and there are a dozen more in play.

[L00b]

Aren't the UK plants running at a loss, or is that some of Fords ones??

Both I think. Ford is shedding 1,600 UK jobs soon.

 

PSA will asset-strip Luton long before it sheds German jobs or mothball German sites. Not the first time (Chrysler Europe, Citroën). Vauxhall-Opel models occupy mostly the same segments as Peugeot and Citroën models, so in agreement with alchresearch above, this is buying the competition whilst it's going cheap for trap-dooring it.

 

Their eyes are to China (with DongFeng) and India (with Hindustan Motors).

Edited March 6, 2017 by L00b

[tzijlstra]

Aren't the UK plants running at a loss, or is that some of Fords ones??

 

They (Opel/Vauxhall combined worldwide) ran at a loss since 1999, would have been out of it this year but Brexit devalued the pound and *poof* away went the profits.

 

GM was a terrible owner though, just as they were terrible for Saab, PSA is run by a cutthroat re-organiser and he might manage to make the brand as a whole profitable again. He won't take prisoners though and the fact that GM still retains responsibility for pensions shows he actually took this operation off their hands with it costing GM.

 

All red flags for UK workers in my opinion. 2020 the main selling model after the Corsa (Astra) will come out of mainstream production (planned) to be followed up by another version presumably, I would assume the designers are looking to share the chassis, engines etc. with PSA models like the 308, C4 etc.

 

If the pound remains weak that is going to limit investment in the UK.