Beyond PSA Group: Stellantis to setup regional office in Malaysia

The existing Petaling Jaya office for Group PSA’s (PSA Groupe in French) South East Asian region headquarters in Malaysia will soon take on additional roles to cover the wider Stellantis group.

The expansion is related to the merger between Group PSA and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to form Stellantis.

Since January 2021, Peugeot S.A. (“Group PSA”) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (“FCA”) have merged into a single entity called Stellantis N.V.

Registered in Netherlands, the 16-brand group now includes Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati, Fiat, Chrysler, Jeep, Citroen, DS, Peugeot, and Opel (Vauxhall).

Currently, FCA’s Asia Pacific regional office is located in Shanghai. With the merger, the company is expected to reorganize its presence in the region, removing duplicate roles.

Stellantis has yet to make any announcement on the matter but sources familiar with the matter told WapCar.my that the PSA Group’s regional training centre in Petaling Jaya will be taking over some of the roles currently carried out from FCA’s Shanghai office.

We also understand that Stellantis is actively looking for management talent to fill several new, regional-level positions.

However, it is too early to say if the Petaling Jaya office (which is a rather small setup) will completely replace FCA’s Shanghai office.

Currently, Group PSA’s Petaling Jaya office only looks after South East Asia while FCA’s Shanghai office covers a wider Asia Pacific region, including India, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

In Malaysia, the only FCA brand that is active here is Maserati, distributed by Naza Italia.

There’s also Jeep, distributed by TAHB Automotive, but its arrangement with FCA is rather murky because TAHB is actually a recond car importer (a very big one too).

TAHB doesn’t operate any Jeep-branded showroom and the company describes itself as a ‘Jeep specialist’ rather than an authorized Jeep distributor. The Jeep models sold by them however, are all new cars and not reconditioned ones.

Jeep is also present in Indonesia, distributed by PT DAS Indonesia Motor while Philippines’ Mercedes-Benz distributor Auto Nation Group also represents both Jeep and Ram there.

Elsewhere in the region, Maserati is also present in Thailand (MGC Asia), while Alfa Romeo is only active in Singapore (EuroAutomobile Pte. Ltd.).

What about Ferrari you ask? Formerly grouped together with Maserati under Fiat, Ferrari has since 2016, spun-off as an independent company. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange with an aptly named ticker ‘RACE.’

FCA’s brands are also present in Brunei but that market is too small to mention, with a total industry volume of just slightly over 10,000 cars annually, 7 times less than Singapore (pre-Covid-19).

On the Group PSA side of Stellantis, Peugeot is represented by Mazda distributor Bermaz’s Berjaya Auto Alliance Sdn Bhd (BAASB).

Also read: Berjaya sold stake in Peugeot biz for RM 6.67 mil, BAASB now subsidiary of Bermaz

Citroen and DS Automobiles are dormant but BAASB is also the after-sales service provider for both French marques.

The PSA Group currently owns a vehicle assembly plant in Gurun, which makes the Peugeot 3008 and Peugeot 5008, both are exported to Thailand.

Will we see a return of the illustrious Alfa Romeo, or for Jeep to receive better support from a national sales office-style setup? Not likely.

The market conditions in Malaysia (over 60 percent controlled by quasi-national brands Proton and Perodua) makes it very unfavorable for new brands to invest here.

The development will most likely be limited only to FCA / Stellantis establishing / expanding a regional management office here, to provide sales, marketing and after-sales support to other Asia Pacific countries.