PSA Group

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Citroën C6.

Roiklow

PSA Group, major French automotive manufacturer and holding company that was formed from the merger of Peugeot and Citroën in 1976. It was one of Europe’s largest carmakers. Its headquarters were in Paris.

Peugeot’s origins trace to 1810, when brothers Jean-Pierre II and Jean-Frédéric Peugeot created a steel foundry and began producing various steel products. The first Peugeot automobile was designed in a family-owned shop set up in 1885 to build velocipedes and quadricycles. In 1896 Armand Peugeot (1849–1915) established the Société Anonyme des Automobiles Peugeot. The company began mass-producing cars in 1929 with the introduction of the 201. That car’s success led to other models. In addition, in 1953 Peugeot began producing motorized scooters that proved highly popular.

In 1914 Citroën’s founder, André Citroën, formed his own company to produce munitions during World War I. The company proved so successful that by the end of the war Citroën was able to buy out the Mors Company, an automobile manufacturer for which André Citroën had previously served as president. In the 1920s the company, which was established as Citroën SA in 1924, emerged as a major producer of low-priced mass-produced cars. By 1933 it had built 90 percent of the taxicabs operating in Paris.

During the Great Depression, Citroën SA fell into financial trouble and was sold to the Michelin company in 1936. During the 1960s Citroën was merged with several other automakers. As its financial troubles continued, Peugeot acquired a nearly 40 percent share of Citroën in 1974, and the following year it took full ownership. As part of the deal, a new parent company was created, PSA (Peugeot Société Anonyme) Group. In addition to manufacturing cars and trucks, PSA was a major producer of bicycles and motorcycles.

In 1978–79 PSA acquired the European car- and truck-making units and related finance operations of Chrysler Corporation of the United States, changing the names of these PSA subsidiaries to Talbot. In 1991 the company rebranded itself as PSA Peugeot Citroën, and in 2016 it took the name PSA Group. The following year the company acquired the German brand Opel and the British brand Vauxhall from the American carmaker General Motors. The deal was valued at approximately $2 billion. In 2021 PSA Group merged with Fiat Chrysler to form Stellantis NV.

(Read Lee Iacocca’s Britannica entry on Chrysler.)