Peugeot Hitches its Past To the Future at the Shanghai World Expo and Unveils the Launch of Peugeot Scooters in China
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PARIS/SHANGHAI - 15 JULY: From 14 July to 15 August 2010, Peugeot is exhibiting at the French Pavilion of the Shanghai World Expo in the year of its 200th anniversary, with a new identity and a new global signature "Motion & Emotion", in the wake of a record half year (global sales volumes).In China, a country with a multi-millennia history, an auto maker which is this year celebrating the 200-year anniversary of its industrial adventure, is naturally choosing to showcase this history while linking it to the future, in a bid to keep pace with the rhythm of Shanghai, a post-modern megalopolis and iconic city for urban planning at the dawn of the 21st century.
Three key zones to interlink the past and the future around the central theme of mobility in 21st-century cities
Peugeot is giving visitors to the World Expo a chance to discover three aspects of its identity, distilled into three zones:
A 200-year-old industrial adventure
Although Peugeot enjoys a high profile in numerous countries and continents, it only more recently established a presence in China, now the world's biggest car market. In this 200th anniversary year for the Marque, it seemed only natural to showcase Peugeot's extensive history to the Chinese public, as a factor of reassurance and a promise of the future for the Marque in China.
Visitors to the World Expo will get a chance to discover the multifaceted activity of Peugeot across two centuries with, in an initial phase, metallurgy rapidly followed by applications in fields as diverse as tools, saws, corset boning, coffee grinders and sewing machines, etc. before converging in the late 19th century towards mobility with the manufacture of cycles and shortly afterwards motorised tricycles.
But the bold gamble which was to determine the history and destiny of Peugeot of course concerned the car with the first model produced and marketed in 1889. Back then, the Peugeot plants in the Montbéliard area employed 1,000 people. 121 years later Peugeot has retained its independence and grown into one of the world's leading players on the auto sector with total production of over 50 million cars, organised into a group with 180,000 staff around the world of which 15,000 in China. This is the kind of universal story which lends itself well to the Shanghai exhibition.
A car zone with a focus on electro-mobility
In the limited exhibition space of 180 m2, Peugeot has decided to demonstrate that electro-mobility lies at the heart of its auto strategy being one of the main foundations for the future of the industry in which it is a major player.
To illustrate this conviction, Peugeot once again makes the past chime with the future. The former is represented by the VLV (light city car), the Marque's first electric vehicle produced and marketed in several hundred units in...1941.
The group, which is preparing to market the Peugeot i0n 100% electric car at the end of this year, is and remains the world's leading maker of electric vehicles (in volumes) and the presence of the VLV, loaned by the Peugeot Museum of Adventure for the World Expo, demonstrates just how far back this interest goes. Peugeot is convinced that the future will bring different levels of electrification of the car. To symbolise the electro-mobility of tomorrow, Peugeot has delegated an international star to Shanghai, the Peugeot BB1, whose presence at the World Expo crowns a European and world tour. The BB1, "2.50 metres, 4 people = 100% electric and zero emissions" will have been exhibited to the public in Frankfurt, Paris, London, Brussels, Milan, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro (as part of the Bibendum Challenge) before serving as ambassador for the Marque's modernity on the banks of the Huangpu river in Shanghai.
With its ground-breaking architecture and style as well as its advanced technology, fitted with inwheel motors and Li-Ion batteries, the BB1 is perfectly at home in the setting of the Shanghai World Expo where it so effectively symbolises the theme of mobility and sustainable development for the cities of the future.
A motorised two-wheeled zone with the S57 and the HYbrid3, and announcement of the launch of a commercial activity for Peugeot Scooters in China
Finally, Peugeot could not take the stage in Shanghai without evoking its particular status as an auto maker which also produces motorised two-wheeled vehicles.
Peugeot is undoubtedly one of the three oldest car makes globally but it can also be proud of the fact that it is the oldest manufacturer of motorised two-wheeled vehicles in the world.
The Chinese public will be able to discover that Peugeot is the number four maker of scooters in Europe with annual production of over 100,000 units. At the heart of the motorised two-wheeled transport zone, two vehicles illustrating once again that for Peugeot "anniversaries are only worthwhile if they build a bridge to the future". The S57, a scooter from the late 1950s whose "like a small car" advertising slogan perfectly symbolises the natural tendency of Peugeot Scooters to assign car-like attributes to its two-wheeled vehicles over the years.
Finally, the HYbrid3, a three-wheeled scooter boasting hybrid technology, heralds the Marque's future production and its capacity to meet the technological challenges of tomorrow. Peugeot has chosen the Shanghai World Expo to unveil plans to market its scooter ranges on the massive Chinese market via a joint venture with the Quinqi group as of early 2011.