French auto giant PSA announces new China head
French carmaker Groupe PSA has announced Grégoire Olivier as its new head of China, effective on Wednesday.
French carmaker Groupe PSA announced that Grégoire Olivier has been appointed head of China, effective as of Wednesday.
The automaker expects Olivier to play a fundamental role in the rebound of the China market for the company to achieve sustainable profitability, competitiveness and growth.
Olivier has worked for several years to develop group activity in China. PSA said that he has a "strong knowledge of this area and the Chinese culture that represents a competitive advantage regarding the current context."
Olivier, a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique, holds an engineering degree from Ecole des Mines de Paris and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He joined Groupe PSA in 2007 as executive vice president of the Automobile Programmes and Strategy Department and a member of the managing board and became executive vice president for China and ASEAN.
Olivier will replace Carlos Gomes, who has chosen to leave the Groupe PSA on his own request at the end of June 2020 in order to engage an ongoing personal entrepreneurial project.
China was PSA’s largest market in the mid-2010s, with sales topping out at around 734,000 units in 2014. The automaker sold a total of 117,084 vehicles last year, a decline of 55.4 percent compared with 2018, according to its financial results released in February.
PSA earlier said that 2020 would be the first year of Groupe PSA’s new-energy vehicle offensive in China, with five new-energy vehicle models to be launched and sold in China.
The automaker also noted that the situation in China in the current epidemic context remains uncertain.
The joint venture between PSA Groupe and Dongfeng Motor Group announced it officially resumed work and production at its Wuhan plant on March 25 after a two-month shutdown due to COVID-19.
