Toyota Deal Could Avert Another PSA Plant Shutdown

PARIS – Toyota Motor Europe will buy midsize utility vans from PSA Peugeot Citroen starting next year and will co-engineer the next generation in time for when Euro 6 emissions standards take effect in 2016.

The agreement, which will involve several thousand vehicles a year, may save PSA’s Sevelnord assembly plant from closing. The facility in Northern France formerly was shared with Fiat, but the Italian auto maker ended its partnership with PSA when it bought Chrysler.

PSA bought Fiat’s 50% of the Sevelnord plant on July 11, but it will continue producing Fiat Scudo vans as well as the Peugeot Expert and Citroen Jumpy. The factory employs 2,700 people.

PSA refuses to say whether Sevelnord will begin manufacturing the rebadged Toyota version next year. French media reports say the choice is between Sevelnord and Vigo, Spain.

“The vans are for Europe, so they will be made in a European plant,” spokeswoman Caroline Brugier-Corbiere says, but adds that Sevelnord unions must agree to efficiency improvements if the work is to go there. She says the auto maker has held seven meetings with the unions, with no deadline for any agreements.

PSA announced last week it was closing its Aulnay plant outside Paris and laying off 6,500 hourly and salaried employees throughout France.

Toyota Motor Europe engineers will work with PSA on research and development of the next generation of vehicles, and Toyota will help pay for the tooling at the plant that is chosen. But it will be a PSA factory rather than a joint operation comparable to the Fiat arrangement.

Neither will the PSA-Toyota relationship be a mirror image of the two auto makers’ accord on small cars. In that project, Toyota runs the factory in the Czech Republic that assembles the Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107, but it co-owns the Sevelnord plant with PSA.

“The light-commercial vehicle segment is an important one for us in many markets throughout Europe,” Toyota Motor Europe President Didier Leroy says. “By joining forces with PSA Peugeot Citroen, we have found a good solution for our loyal customers following the recent discontinuation of our own Hiace model.”

For the 2013 versions of its van, Toyota will develop interior and exterior parts visible to the customer to differentiate its vans from PSA’s but, given the short lead time, changes will be minimal. Production is to start in second-quarter 2013.

Last year, Sevelnord made 33,260 Peugeot Expert units as well as 29,625 Citroen Jumpy builds and about 19,000 Scudos. While the auto makers have not announced volume goals for Toyota, the Japanese business newspaper Nikkei reports it would be between 5,000 and 10,000.