Troubled car brands Peugeot, Citroen and Opel could be set for a full-on merger, which could see either General Motors buying out Peugeot and Citroen from parent company PSA or Opel and Vauxhall moving into French ownership.
The proposed move, reported by Automotive News, is still very much at the embryonic stage. GM and PSA have already linked Opel and Peugeot-Citroen in a parts and manufacturing sharing agreement designed to give the two firms €2-billion in savings every year and to try and get them back on their feet in the face of increasing competition from Volkswagen and Hyundai-Kia.
A full-on merger or buyout is a beast of a different type though, and would face colossal hurdles from unions, politicians and legal ramifications. For a start, it would almost certainly see the closure of at least one or two more major factories, above and beyond the closures and job losses already being planned in France and Germany. Secondly, with car making still being seen as a political jewel in the crown in both nations, it's hard to see France or Germany's politicians standing idly by while one side or the other is sold off.
While this news has only broken this week, apparently initial discussions on the subject were held earlier this year when the PSA-GM tie-up was first announced, and it's thought that the worsening European car market, combined with investors and analysts putting major pressure on GM to do something, anything about ailing Opel, is putting the plan back on the front burner.
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