Car Industry’s Future Under Threat From Electric Vehicles, Says PSA

(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s second-largest car manufacturer is targeting a fully electrified fleet by 2025 but warned the rise of electric vehicles and hydrogen-powered ones threatens the industry’s future.

“Ultimately the sale of electric vehicles is to the detriment of our long-term sales,” said Helen Lees, PSA Group’s head of electric vehicles and connected services, at a conference in London on Tuesday. “Particularly for the short to medium-term, it’s where we really think consumers are.”

All new models from the PSA Group - the French automobile manufacturer which owns Peugeot, Citroen and Vauxhall - are already available in a hybrid or electric version, Lees said.

By 2020, 7% of cars the group sells could be a plug-in variant, Lees added. The group predicts plug-in hybrids will represent more than half of the European market in 2025.

Lees said that PSA Group was also developing hydrogen-powered vehicles, which car manufacturers have been slower to embrace because of a lack of consumer awareness and the affordability of the technology.

“Like most manufacturers I don’t think any of us have put all of our eggs into one basket,” said Lees. “We are also working on hydrogen, we see it as a lot more suited to commercial vehicles.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Olivia Konotey-Ahulu in London at okonoteyahul@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaric Nightingale at anightingal1@bloomberg.net, Christopher Sell, Helen Robertson

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