The plant is located on a large site at Sausheim on the Île Napoléon, on the eastern edge of the Mulhouse conurbation.
This places it approximately 65 km / 40 miles to the east of the company’s principal plant at Sochaux, the two locations having been linked by the A36 autoroute since the late 1970s.
The 1960s were a period of rapid expansion for Peugeot, with the market-place success of, in particular, their 204 enabling them to overtake Simca and Citroën in the domestic sales charts, which moved the manufacturer from fourth position to second in the French market.
Peugeot were sufficiently profitable in this period to pursue a strategy that involved broadening their range downmarket, to include for the first time a model in the “Supermini” class.
[2] The forge supplies other plants in Stellantis as well as third party customers including Ford, Volvo, Renault and BMW.