Mahindra to sell Peugeot scooters in North Africa

Mahindra is scouting new markets including North Africa and Vietnam to retail the Peugeot premium scooters while the launch in India is still around a year away, says Indian automobile website MotorBeam.

Having acquired 51 per cent stake in Peugeot Motorcycles (PMTC) earlier this year, Mahindra is now expanding to new markets outside Europe to retail the French premium scooters. As part of its expansion plans, the company has identified markets in North Africa and Vietnam, focusing on the latter for now.

Mahindra also conveyed China as a potential market given the premium segment these scooters compete in. At present, the UK is one of Peugeot's biggest markets outside France. Coming to the Indian launch of Peugeot scooters, the automaker said that it is not looking at immediately introducing the models.

The idea of Peugeot's acquisition was to expand the brand in markets it already serves and not sell them in India. For now, the domestic launch is a still a year or more away, and when it does make it to the showrooms here, the automaker will bring the cost down in favour of a more competitive price tag.

With a history of 116 years, Peugeot Motorcycles is the oldest motorised two-wheeler manufacturer in the world and retails scooters ranging from 50-400cc including the Django, Streetzone, Citystar, Satelis and Metropolis three-wheeler among several others.

PMTC, which is part of the 54 billion Euro PSA group was bought out by Mahindra for 28 million Euros with the latter infusing 15 million Euros to finance new and existing projects while the rest were purchased as shares held by the PSA group, giving the Indian automaker 51 per cent majority stake in the company.

Photograph: Courtesy, Peugot