Dongfeng Citroen sold less than 5,000 units a month

Dongfeng Citroen was founded in 1992 and has been working in the Chinese auto market for nearly 30 years. In 2014, its annual sales exceeded 320,000 units, but after that the French brand went downhill and sales fell year by year. At the beginning of this year, Dongfeng Citroen set the annual target at 95,000. According to the sales figures of 29,000 units in the first half of the year, its average monthly sales have fallen to less than 5,000 units.

The sharp decline in sales has become the norm

According to the data, Dongfeng Citroen sold only 4,200 units in June this year, a sharp drop of 58% compared with 10,000 units in the same period last year. In the first half of the year, Dongfeng Citroen sales also fell sharply, falling nearly 60%, only selling 29,000 new cars. In 2016, Dongfeng Citroen's total sales volume was 248,500 units, down 16.63% year-on-year; then it decreased by 47.36% and 23% in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The year-on-year decline in sales has defeated the confidence of Dongfeng Citroen. The French brand has set a sales target of 95,000 in 2019, even lower than the sales of 117,800 units last year.

Although the sales volume of the Chinese auto market is currently falling, the decline of Dongfeng Citroen has far exceeded the overall decline. At the same time, the market share of French car brands has also been declining. In 2019, the share of French brands in China has dropped to 0.7% from January to June.

The launching of new models is quite slow

The performance of Dongfeng Citroen in sales is disappointing, and it is not satisfactory in terms of new models. Dongfeng Citroen launched two new models, Tianyi and Yunyi, in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Since then, no new products have been introduced. In the past two years, Dongfeng Citroen has been updating its current products to keep its products up with the fast-changing automotive market. Dongfeng Citroen did not come up with new products this year. And this year is the 100 years of Citroen, it only launched the commemorative version of the model.

Compared with Japanese and German brands, Dongfeng Citroen has lost its advantage, and at the same time, the lack of product power has made the Dongfeng Citroen brand gradually out of the consumer's field of vision.

In contrast, the old rival Volkswagen not only launched the new brand, JETTA, but also laid out three new cars at once. The gap between Dongfeng Citroen and its competitors is growing.

For Dongfeng Citroen’s dealers

Slow product launches and continued decline in sales have caused Dongfeng Citroen dealers to find ways to maintain their livelihoods. Recently, IIA communicated with some Dongfeng Citroen dealers. The dealer said: “At present, due to the sluggish market environment, we have chosen to introduce the Dongfeng Peugeot models into the store, in the hope that more models will drive sales.” Although Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot belong to DONGFENG PEUGEOT CITROEN AUTOMOBILE COMPANY LTD, this will cause Dongfeng Citroen to lose more consumers and potential users. Today, Dongfeng Citroen has only completed 30% of its annual target. Under the downward trend of the overall automobile market, the time left for Dongfeng Citroen is not much.