Next Gen Peugeots & Citroens will be part-Chinese

The €800-million investment by China's Dongfeng which helped to rescue PSA Peugeot Citroen last year is about to bear mechanical fruit. The two companies have announced plans for a platform-sharing collaboration for B- and C-segment cars. That means that the next-generations of Peugeot 308 or Citroen C3 will have some closely-related Chinese cousins.

The cost of the new platforms ª€200-million initial for the small one) will be split 60:40 with PSA making the bigger investment, and around 20 new models are expected to eventually be built from the shared parts – from small hatches to medium SUVs. The architecture won't be ready for use until around 2018, but it's likely that a small DS-badged crossover will be the first vehicle launched in Europe to use it.

This platform for smaller vehicles, which will eventually be called the Common Modular Platform, has already been under development within PSA as the EMP1 chassis. The larger platform will be developed from the current EMP2, which already underpins such as the Peugeot 308 and Citroen C4 Picasso. EMP2 will be stretched to create a successor to the current Peugeot 508 and a DS saloon which will also replace the slow-selling Citroen C5. A longer-wheelbase version will be produced for China, which is a market that likes its rear legroom.

It’s all part of PSA’s plan to increase its sales in China from around 700,000 at the moment to just over 1.5-million by 2020.