Fca-Psa, all the advantages of a global merger between platforms and shared technologies

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A possible merger between Psa and Fca can generate great advantages, perhaps not as wide as those that could be created by the integration with Renault or with Hyundai, but certainly interesting in terms of the breadth of the offer, the number of brands deployed and geographical coverage.

Psa in fact ranks brands such as Peugeot, Citroen, Ds and Opel with a strong relevance especially in the European market while Fca has premium sports area brands such as Maserati and Alfa Romeo, regional brands such as Fiat and a world-wide name like Jeep that is growing in two figures driven by the boom in suvs. Psa, as the CEO Carlos Tavares has stated several times, aims to bring Peugeot to the US where the group is non-existent, while Fca is a superpower with Jeep and with Ram, the pick-up specialist that dominates the North American market and is very popular many areas.

Fca integrating with the transalpine group (which also saved Opel from bankruptcy) could end its main problem: the absence of modular platforms (to build different models for size, brand and type) and prepared for electrification ie for the electric and hybrid cars. Psa in fact has very modern architectures like the CMP for compact cars, like the twin Peugeot 208 and Opel Corsa also produced in full electric version thanks to the eCmp variant. But in the PSA organs and platforms bank there are architectures like Emp2 for medium / large cars and SUVs of all sizes that technologically rival the mother of all the modular platforms that is Volkswagen's Mqb.

In short, these are solutions that would give Fca a boost, which for its part has been cooking cars for a long time using the little that it has in the cupboard like the non-modern Small Wide platform that keeps most of the models in the group standing. Furthermore, if Fca is strong in America, Psa is rooted in China and in non-European markets.
And the overlap of the models? It is now a false problem that belongs to an ancient single-brand logic. Now, thanks to the modular platforms that allow you to build different cars in maximum industrial synergy, the difference is made by positioning and marketing. Peugeot overlaps with Opel but this does not create difficulties indeed, it allows to divide the high development costs of electrified, connected and automated cars. The Volkswagen group has many brands and models stacked and continues to run. Fca and Psa would have mutual benefits because what matters in the current automotive industry is the ability to reduce the weight of the investments necessary for the technological and energy transition.

At first glance, both groups would fill important empty boxes of their offer, starting with Psa that could finally count on the premium range thanks to Alfa Romeo and even higher with Maserati capable, if financially strong, of competing on equal terms with German rivals. On the other hand, Fca needs a strong partner, equipped with modular platforms on which to build the long list of models announced by the latest industrial plan. Another fundamental point would come from the overall production, which would position the new Italian / French / American reality in fourth position in the general classification with almost 9 million vehicles produced annually, positioning itself behind the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.