Peugeot in Australia will have an increasing reliance on its commercial van line up as the French vehicle maker continues to refocus its efforts down under after years of changing distributors and lost buying audiences.
Speaking at the launch of the marque’s new 2008 small SUV, general manager of Peugeot and Citroen for Australia Kate Gillies, said. the three van range will have some updates in 2021 and there will be a renewed drive to increase Peugeot van sales via the small Partner, mid-size Expert and large Boxer.
The most urgent demand from the Australian distributor is for an automatic for the large Peugeot Boxer which should come sometime in 2021 to bolster the push for more commercial van sales for the brand.
Peugeot as a brand sold just under 2500 vehicles in Australia in 2019, and is running at 1555 units to the end of September this year. Last it sold a total of 100 Experts and a handful of the small Partner panel vans and so far this year they’ve moved 147 Partners, 166 Experts and 11 Boxers for a total so far of 324 commercials.
That contrast with almost 2550 commercial vans sold in Australia by French rival Renault so far this year.
“We are getting stronger enquiry from small to medium fleets and we have a number of deals in the offing. with companies. that are attracted to the safety package we offer the performance, driving feel and styling,” Kate Gillies told us.
Interestingly Peugeot added former Renault manager of light commercials Lyndon Healey to its team earlier this year and will be using his expertise to win some sales from his former employer. Under Healey at Renault the Regie dramatically increased its commercial vehicle audience in Australia via its Traffic, Kangoo and Master van models.
