Grégoire Olivier has worked in PSA with great passion since seven years ago. Though he has been the director of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the executive vice president, and CEO Asian Operations for more than three years, few people who are active in Chinese auto world could have a chance to communicate with Olivier. As the implementation of PSA's strategy "Back in the Race" and the enhancement of PSA's cooperation with Dongfeng, Olivier will play an active role in Chinese auto world soon.
"I am a football fan. I like French team best. My favorite player is Karim Benzema. "For Olivier, football attracts him so much that he has kept watching the latest news every day despite his busy work.However, Olivier's passion for sport is not just football. He told Tencent Auto he would play tennis on weekends when he was in Shanghai.
"Sport is a very good way to relieve stress and keep healthy."
For this supreme leader of PSA Asian operations, Olivier shoulders heavy responsibilities. Although PSA has developed in China for more than twenty years and Olivier has declared, besides Europe, Asia and China would be the priority in PSA's development, PSA still didn't do a very good job in Asia.
From the disclosed data, the sales volume of PSA in Europe declined sharply because of the sluggish in European market. The number of sales cars in Europe reduced from 2,195,000 in 2010 to 1,628,000 in 2013. However, the sales volume of PSA in China was on a rise. The number of sales cars in China increased from 376,000 in 2010 to 557,000 in 2013, making PSA's market share increase from 3.5% in2012 to 3.8% in 2013. Nevertheless, there was still a big gap between such market share as around 4% and the one that the former CEO, Philippe Varin considered as 8% in Chinese market.
As PSA's important battlefield, apart from Europe, Chinese market plays a crucial role in the "Back in the Race" plan. What's more, Dongfeng's investment in PSA will help to promote the implementation of the "Back in the Race" plan and bring new opportunities to PSA's development in China and in Southeast Asia in the future.
Olivier mentioned in the future PSA would strengthen its cooperation with Dongfeng in every field and they would divide their work by function. Olivier said he would be in charge of the daily operation and business management of PSA and Mr. Liu Weidong would have two roles. One would be about the operational aspect, to supervise DPCA on behalf of Dongfeng to make a bigger DPCA. The other would be on the Asian affairs, to give advice to Dongfeng and PSA's development in Asia with Xuping and other members from the board of supervisors.
The strengthen cooperation between Dongfeng and PSA would be shown not only in functional field, but also the technical level. According to the plan, both sides would build a new research center based on PSA's Asian R&D center. Olivier disclosed many details of the new research center to Tencent Auto. According to his description, the new research center would be bigger and better. And in the future, Peugeot, Citroën and DFPV would own its own separated design studio to make tailored products for their own brands. Meanwhile, the new center would utilize the available suppliers' resources in China to open up a platform for the whole world, especially the newly emerging and the rapidly developing markets.[
detail]