Absolutely Nothing To Do With The Bakken -- Archival -- Bragging Rights

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May 27, 2021:from wiki:

Stellantis N.V. is a Dutch-domiciled multinational automotive manufacturer, formed in 2021 on the basis of a 50-50 cross-border merger between the Italian Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the French PSA Group, and headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. 

On 15 May 2021, Stellantis is the eighth-largest automaker worldwide (behind Volkswagen Group, Toyota, Daimler AG, Ford, Honda, General Motors and BMW).[ 

The principal activity of Stellantis is the design, development, manufacture and sale of automobiles bearing the Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Mopar, Opel, Peugeot, Ram and Vauxhall brands. 

It is one of the largest automakers in the world and has 400,000 employees, a presence in more than 130 countries with manufacturing facilities in 30 countries.

March 26, 2017: from The [London] Guardian:

The owner of Peugeot and Citroën is close to completing a deal with General Motors to buy its European car brands Vauxhall and Opel.

Groupe PSA and GM could announce a deal as early as Monday morning after successful talks between the carmakers.

Negotiations about a potential acquisition were revealed last month and the board of PSA is now understood to have approved the deal.

The announcement of a deal will kickstart an brutal political battle between the governments of France, the home of PSA, Germany, the home of Opel, and Britain, the home of Vauxhall, to protect jobs and plants in their countries.

 Original Post

A reader alerted me to this item:

General Motors Co is in advanced discussions to buy a small stake in French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen as part of their proposed strategic alliance in Europe, sources familiar with the situation said on Monday.

Under the terms being discussed, GM would likely buy a stake of less than 5 percent in Peugeot, the sources said. A deal could be announced in the next few days, although sources warned that no deal has been reached and talks could still fall apart.

On first blush, this makes absolutely no sense. An investment of 5 percent in Peugeot is "peanuts" for Government Motors. The article provides a boiler plate explanation why Peugeot is involved. So one has to ask, why would GM even be exploring such an investment. Perhaps these two paragraphs help explain:

Analysts said an alliance with Peugeot would allow the companies to pool together resources to develop vehicles. But they added that it could take a decade to fully realize the benefits of the pact and more steps would be needed to overcome the core problem for both automakers in Europe: overcapacity.

"Frankly we believe it will introduce complications at a very delicate time in its own restructuring," Guggenheim analyst Matthew Stover said last week. "In the grand scheme of things, GM has much more to offer PSA than the other way around."

First of all, take the "GM has much more to offer PSA (Peugeot) than the other way around" statement with a grain of salt. These guys don't do business deals out of the goodness of their hearts. GM has an idea; they're thinking outside the box. Remember, their shareholder-in-chief is a Harvard grad.

When I was stationed in Europe back in the 80's, the Citroen caught my eye for two reasons: a) it was downright ugly; and b) it was downright ugly. No actually, the second reason was that it was very small.

I don't know what the Citroen looks like now, and it doesn't matter because "it could take a decade to fully realize the benefits" and over a decade the style could change significantly.

But, if you start with an ugly car, and you start with a small car, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Yup, you got it.

For those who haven't got it yet, think where Government Motors (and all automakers) want to be a decade from now.

The last hint: Peugeot would make a great laboratory outside the eyes of the American press.

The only reason I'm posting this is for bragging rights for the person who alerted me to the article. It's his hunch that the whole thing has to do with using Peugeot has a laboratory for developing a new electric vehicle.

Archival purposes only. Now, how to tag it?