Breaking: Peugeot pulls out of LeMans due to financial trouble!

Finances seem to have taken the toll on one of LeMans toughest competitors. French automaker Peugeot, which has been giving a stiff fight to German automaker Audi over the past many years will pull out of the legendary LeMans endurance racing championship on account of financial difficulties. While Peugeot is the second largest automaker in Europe, its finances have been on the wane due to a combination of flagging sales and lower profits. Pulling out of LeMans is just one measure Peugeot will take, amongst many measures to shore up on its finances.

Peugeot 908 HDi Prototype LeMans Racer

Apart from pulling out of LeMans, Peugeot is also cutting 6,000 jobs across its plants in Europe over the next year and also taking many cost saving measures to save over a billion dollars. Thankfully, the WRC racing effort that Peugeot is a part of through its sister company Citroen is still up and running and is not under immediate threat with the company announcing that Citroen will take part in 2012 WRC season. This is the terse statement released by Peugeot about it pulling out of the 2012 edition of the LeMans championship, a championship that has run for 89 years.

This decision has been taken in the context of a difficult economic environment in Europe. Peugeot has chosen to concentrate resources on its sales performance in 2012.

Even as Peugeot exits from the championship, Toyota will enter the 2012 LeMans with a hybrid car to take on the dominant Audis, that have been winning consistently over tha last few years except in 2009, where Peugeot took top honors with the Peugeot 908 prototype Diesel LeMans racer. For avid LeMans fans, who loved the high voltage and tense battles between Peugeot and Audi unfolding, it will be the end of an era of sorts as Peugeot has put its LeMans racing effort on indefinite hold, giving no indications of when it could get back to the racing field.

Via Reuters

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