Peugeot, the French car group, is planning to produce within the next two years a new Citroen car in Ryton, near Coventry, to build on the runaway success of its 206 model.
Jean-Martin Folz, Peugeot's chairman, said yesterday that Ryton would continue to make the 206 "for some considerable time" but, as in all group plants, would add a Citroen model using the same platform.
Peugeot aims to build 2.7m cars this year compared with 2.5m last year and just 2m in 1996. Mr Folz has brought forward his target for producing 3m cars to 2001-2.
Ryton, which built 160,000 206s last year, mostly for export, should raise its output to 200,000 this year.
It is the only European car plant working seven days a week, and helped Peugeot capture third spot in British car sales last year with an increased market share.
Like Aulnay and Poissy, the two French plants producing both Peugeots and Citroens, Ryton will also, towards the end of 2002, produce a Citroen model. It is not yet clear whether this will be a new model or an existing car, such as the Xsara.
Company sources said it was also uncertain whether Ryton would take on more staff to build Citroen after creating 900 jobs last April. Peugeot now employs 3,500 there.
Mr Folz, setting out his strategy to retain Peugeot's independence in the current wave of consolidation, launched a savage attack on the mania among car makers for mergers and acquisitions.
"The key factor for success in manufacturing is not the ability to produce five million identical cars that nobody will buy but a wide range of different cars," he said.
Industry experts say annual output of 5m cars is the minimum scale required to stay alive as an independent group - an idea Mr Folz dismissed as "politically correct" and embraced by American car groups "who keep saying they will buy the rest of the world".
Mr Folz said: "We will be building 75% of our production on three different platforms, rather than five million cars on 20 platforms."
Peugeot has 5% of the global car market.
Mr Folz, presenting the car group's annual environment report, said sales of the diesel Hdi engine - produced in eastern France and claimed to be the world's cleanest engine - will rise from 470,000 units last year to 700,000 this year.
Peugeot plans to introduce a two litre "lean burn" petrol engine - which cuts fuel consumption by up to 20% - on an unnamed model later this year, and is working with Ford on a range of "green" diesels.
However, Mr Folz, who is investing 3bn Euro dollars a year on new models, ruled out the possiblility of any closer alliance with any of the world's big players, arguing that the market was "segmenting" more and more into smaller groups of critical consumers. Consolidation was not the only or the best answer to the challenge of globalisation, he said.
