Peugeot, GM joint programs to use French co's technology

General Motors and alliance partner PSA Peugeot Citroen will build all three planned joint vehicle programs on the French automaker's technological platforms, the companies said on Thursday.

Peugeot Chief Executive Philippe Varin and GM's Opel Chairman Steve Girsky, who last year unveiled a broad-based partnership to share development costs and cut European losses, presented more details of their plans at a press conference in Brussels.

A future generation of small cars such as GM's Opel Corsa and Citroen C3 will be based on a Peugeot vehicle platform, the companies said.

Peugeot will also develop a family of people-movers to replace its 3008 and the Opel Zafira, while GM is to draw up successors to the smaller Opel Meriva, Peugeot 2008 and Citroen C3 Picasso minivans. Both vehicle categories will use Peugeot platforms.

The first vehicles from the shared development programs are due in 2016, the companies reiterated.

The companies did not give any details of production locations or investment in the new models.

(Reporting By Laurence Frost and Gilles Guillaume; editing by Blaise Robinson)