KUALA LUMPUR: Concerns over brand direction and dilution may have led Stellantis NV to make a strategic change to its Peugeot operation by taking over the French marque's distribution and sales in Malaysia.
Some industry observers feel that Stellantis and its Malaysian partner Bermaz Auto Bhd (BAuto) are at odds over the direction of the Peugeot brand here.
"Stellantis is concerned about the dilution of the brand as BAuto wants to focus on a tri-marque strategy with Peugeot, Kia and Mazda," an observer said.
The Malaysian automotive market has become more competitive, making it tougher for Peugeot to gain a foothold, another observer said.
"Stellantis recently outlined its plans for new mobility solutions for the Asean region. This included its ambition to lead the shift to electrification," the observer added.
Stellantis, one of the world's leading automakers and a mobility provider, on Wednesday said it would establish a new national sales company (NSC) in Malaysia in the first quarter of next year.
"The new NSC will be the official Stellantis entity directing and managing the sale and distribution of the automaker's vehicles in Malaysia. "The change in business strategy is part of Stellantis' growth ambitions in the Asean region, in line with its electrification plans and the company's global Dare Forward 2030 strategy," Stellantis said in a statement.
This confirmed Business Times' report earlier that Stellantis would directly manage the distribution and sales of Peugeot vehicles here.
This would reduce the role of BAuto to super dealer from exclusive distributor.
Stellantis' new direction and strategy for the Asean region includes its electrification ambitions.
The group is evaluating the potential of the Gurun plant in Kedah as a regional manufacturing hub to manufacture battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for both domestic and export markets in Asean, and driving consumer adoption of BEVs in the region.
The plant currently produces key Peugeot models including 2008, 3008 and 5008 which are distributed to markets in the region including Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia.
Stellantis is investing over RM2 billion (€400 million) to introduce the STLA Medium platform, which was unveiled globally in June this year, to the Asean region.
STLA Medium is a global BEV-by-design vehicle platform with state-of-the-art features including best-in-class range of 700 kilometres, energy efficiency, embedded power and charging power.
This modular-by-design platform enables Stellantis to be able to produce multi-energy vehicles (BEV, ICE, MHEV) and local manufacture of cars from Stellantis' house of brands such as Jeep and Citroën.
BAuto's 55 per cent-owned Bermaz Auto Alliance (BAA), which is the current distributor for Peugeot in Malaysia, will in the meantime continue to work with Stellantis for vehicle sales through its own network.
"We are excited to announce this new business strategy to serve the Malaysian market with more products and services under the new NSC structure.
"This includes the future introduction of new brands to Malaysia under the Stellantis portfolio," said Daniel Gonzalez, chief operating officer for Asean and General Distributors at Stellantis.
Gonzalez emphasised BAuto's pivotal role in establishing a strong presence for the Peugeot brand here n the last three years."BAuto is a valued partner and has built a solid foundation for the Peugeot brand in Malaysia since December 2020, which will greatly help our transition to the NSC structure
NSC will be led by Jamie Francis Morais, who is Stellantis ccurrent head of aftersales for Asean and General Distributors."Morais is a seasoned professional with 19 years of experience in the automotive industry within esteemed global brands including Toyota, BMW, Nissan and Proton.
"His extensive leadership background spans across different operations including aftersales, network, customer service, quality, sales and training," the group said.
BAA will continue working with Stellantis during this transition period, with both companies remaining steadfast to serve Peugeot customers with uninterrupted vehicle service, parts, warranty and aftersales service.
BAuto executive chairman Tan Sri Ben Yeoh said it is fully supportive of Stellantis' global ambition."From the onset of our partnership, we adopted the role of being the custodian of the Peugeot brand in Malaysia, as we are passionate in building brands.
"Hence, we gladly accepted the challenge in 2020 and together with the Stellantis team, we worked diligently to further develop the brand in Malaysia. "Today, we are proud to be able to steer it in the direction where Stellantis is ready to take it further. We are fully supportive of Stellantis' global ambition," Yeoh added.