The Guangzhou Peugeot Automobile Company (GPAC) is a former automobile manufacturer located in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It was a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between the Guangzhou municipal government and the

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

brand of the French automobile manufacturer

PSA Peugeot Citroën The PSA Group (), legally known as Peugeot S.A. (Peugeot Société Anonyme, trading as Groupe PSA; formerly known as PSA Peugeot Citroën from 1991 to 2016) was a French multinational automotive manufacturing company which produced automobiles ...

. The company was founded on 26 September 1985 and was defunct by March 1997 when Peugeot sold their stake in the joint venture.

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

, a sister brand in

, already had a successful joint venture which began production in 1992, ( Dongfeng-Citroën). In 2002, the Peugeot brand was reintroduced to China through Dongfeng.''World of Cars 2006·2007'', p. 230 After the company had gone defunct,

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

joined with the Guangzhou government to establish its own joint venture company,

Guangqi Honda Automobile Guangqi Honda Automobile Co., Ltd., also called GAC-Honda, is a Chinese automobile manufacturing joint venture company based in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Co-owned by Honda and GAC Group (''Guangqi''), Guangqi Honda operates two plants that, ...

History

One of the first foreign-Chinese joint auto-making ventures,Fernandez and Liu, p. 91
/ref> over its eleven-year lifespan the company only recorded production of about 100,000 cars.Fernandez and Liu, p. 86
/ref> Manufacturing two models originally sold via fleet sales, its products were mostly used as

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choic ...

s or by government employees.Fernandez and Liu, p. 79
/ref> Fleet sales commenced in 1989, with a model line comprising the

Peugeot 505 The Peugeot 505 is a large family car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1979 to 1992 in Sochaux, France. It was also manufactured in various other countries including Argentina (by Sevel from 1981 to 1995), China, Thailand (by Yo ...

(1980 design) and

504 __NOTOC__ Year 504 (DIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Nicomachus without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1257 ...

(1968 design).

Conflict

Component localization targets, set to encourage creation of a local

supply chain In commerce, a supply chain is a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products to customers through a distribution system. It refers to the network of organizations, people, acti ...

, exacerbated tensions. They were met late if at all, and while the French initially profited from parts sales, Chinese consumers saw increased component localization from inexperienced suppliers lead to inferior products.Fernandez and Liu, p. 83
/ref> In spite of Chinese resistance, Peugeot repatriated profits,Fernandez and Liu, p. 81
/ref> and cultural conflicts continued throughout. By 1993, a soured Peugeot saw its now-inferior models out-completed by better offeringsFernandez and Liu, p. 85
/ref> with sales dropping to 2,544 while competing

Shanghai VW SAIC Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd., formerly known as Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd. is an automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Anting, Shanghai, China and a joint venture between Volkswagen Group and SAIC Motor. It was ...

built no less than 146,000 cars—fifty percent of the overall market. By 1996, the Guangzhou government decided it no longer wanted a French foreign partner. Peugeot removed itself in 1997, and Guangzhou Automotive chose to begin a new joint venture with Honda.

Ownership

PSA Peugeot Citroën held 22% ownership, with a total foreign ownership of 26% to 30%.

Model gallery

Image:Peugeot 504 truck (2).jpg, 1989-1997
广州标致GP7200卡车
Guangzhou-Peugeot GP 7200 Truck Image:Peugeot 505 02 China 2016-04-11.jpg, 1990-1997
广州标致GP7202/7203
Guangzhou-Peugeot GP 7202/7203

References

{{PSA Peugeot Citroën Car manufacturers of China Peugeot factories Motor vehicle assembly plants in China GAC Group joint ventures Chinese-foreign joint-venture companies Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1985 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1997 Manufacturing companies based in Guangzhou Peugeot PSA Group Stellantis Chinese companies established in 1985 Chinese companies disestablished in 1997