PSA Seeks New Ways to Sell Cars in U.S.

PSA Group, which hopes to begin selling cars in the U.S. again by 2026, tells Automotive News it aims to do so with techniques that are cheaper and more agile than traditional retailing.

The company envisions a tech-centric system with digital shopping tools, smartphone apps and a streamlined retail network that somehow lowers fixed costs and raises profitability.

Larry Dominique, who heads PSA’s North America unit, tells the newspaper a major goal is to lower the startup costs of relaunching PSA brands. The company stopped selling cars in the U.S. in 1991.

Dominique says PSA is assessing how to balance the needs for “physical touch points” in buying and maintaining a vehicle with the high cost of bricks-and-mortar facilities. He emphasizes that the company has made no decisions yet. But he says PSA will move in early 2019 from planning to setting timetables and making model choices.