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Ask HN: Why French auto manufacturers are not present on U.S. market?
I have just read about PEUGEOT 208, a nice-looking city car that has recently been awarded the title 2020 European Car of the Year. In addition to combustion engine versions (gas and diesel), the manufacturer also offers a fully electric version (e-208) with a range of 217 miles and relatively fast charging (0%-80% charging time of 30 min.). With this in mind, I'm curious about your thoughts on why major French auto manufacturers (Peugeot, Renault, Citroen) are not present on U.S. market (though this Quora thread sheds some light: https://www.quora.com/Why-are-Renault-Citroen-Peugeot-and-Dacia-not-sold-in-the-USA).
- gshdg 7y agoWhat about those quora answers fails to satisfy your curiosity?
- ablekh 7y agoI just wanted to hear thoughts by HN community. Some people here might have different perspectives and/or additional details compared to those presented on Quora.
- simonblack 7y agoFrench cars are too quirky for the US market. French car manufacturers have a market that is both small enough and large enough to try out experiments that would fail elsewhere, and innovation that is deemed too costly for the US mass market: Fluid suspension - 1960s; sliding doors on cars - 1990s; avant-gard styling: all down through the many decades. Many French cars are iconic: The Citroen 2CV https://www.erclassics.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/700x/17f82f742ffe127f42dca9de82fb58b1/c/i/citroen-2cv-1957-c0985-037.jpg https://www.erclassics.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/ima..., The Citroen Parisienne DS https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSnLQ5QHMABoGiYugMX6MO_kWRYzq21xGrhBK0AKMATJlY8rgSS https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSnLQ... and the Citroen C4 with those strange door panels https://c4.wallpaperflare.com/wallpaper/340/990/475/women-sitting-sneakers-car-wallpaper-preview.jpg https://c4.wallpaperflare.com/wallpaper/340/990/475/women-si... I spent many years travelling in France, my preference was for a Citroen DS3 with its distinctive 'reverse shark fin' behind the driver's window :) https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/10/8/1286530215195/Citroen-DS3-006.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=6dc2f346b034e74dc2710afceef48992 https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pict...
- ablekh 7y agoI see. Very interesting perspective and facts - thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and experiences. This is exactly the kind of difference in comment quality and details that make HN a much more preferred venue for knowledge sharing than Quora for me (despite myself have been quite active there a while ago - <rant> I feel that, since then, Quora platform's content quality has significantly deteriorated </rant>).