Its vice-president of international sales Bernd Schantz was on hand in Melbourne last week for the global debut of the 308 Touring, ahead of its Geneva motor show reveal.
Although Schantz's focus is on big markets like Russia, China and South America, he says Australia and the Asia-Pacific rank highly.
“If you look at the different regions in which Peugeot is present, very clearly the European market is in saturation phase,” he says.
As a result Peugeot is looking to growth areas but “clearly the Asia-Pacific region is one of the important developments for us.”
Peugeot has been in Australia for 50 years.
“There's a great (synchronicity) between this market and Peugeot,” Schantz says.
“Our products are well adapted to this market. The Peugeot image of stylish cars fits very well with this market."
“I hope that we will sell more than 10,000 cars but I think that we should go further in the future. We have some further potential and we have to work on optimising our potential.”
Schantz says it is a personal challenge to increase sales in markets like Australia.
“The 308 Touring debut in Australia ahead of Geneva shows that Australia is an important market,” he says.
“The next world premiere should be in Sydney, without saying too much.”
He described the Melbourne debut for the vehicle as symbolic.
“But it's important because a lot of motor shows want to have a world premiere and the decision to show the 308 Touring here is a good symbol,” he says.
.jpg)
