Dao Ge said car original text/ listen to the wind chant
During the year, the French car produced a dark horse, the Versailles C5X, which appeared like a mascot, allowing DPCA to release good news that was rare in recent years: the sales volume in the first 11 months reached 86,553 units, an increase of 97% year-on-year.
Suddenly, this divine dragon that had been sleeping for a long time seemed to have a hint of resurrection full of blood.
In an exchange on December 18, the editor of "Dao Ge Says Car" asked Mr. Chen Bin, general manager and party secretary of DPCA Automobile Co., Ltd.: "You just said that the sales volume of DPCA Automobile this year has reached 100,000 units, is DPCA out of the predicament?" ”
Chen Bin replied: "We have not come out of the predicament, we just woke up in the ICU ward, just transferred to the general ward, we still can't get out of bed." ”
I don't know why, when I heard this sentence, the author actually felt some tragic meaning. Once upon a time, DPCA was also the leader in the Chinese market, and although it is not good now, the two brands of "Peugeot" and "Citroen" are still well-known car brands, and the emergence of versailles C5X has more or less made people see the hope of the rise of French cars. Chen Bin's words are intriguing.
Of course, Versailles is controversial, about its shortcomings, about the reasons why it is not selling well, these are everywhere on major platforms. But what is certain is that the Versailles C5X is also a symbol of the revival of the DPCA, if not the hope of the revival of the DPCA, behind it is a group of DPCA people who strive to turn the DPCA into an ordinary ward.
The toughness and bloodiness of the old man
Versailles C5X is the most existential model in sales of DPCA in recent years, but in addition to this, we may ignore that even without it, the sales of DPCA this year can be called a rare achievement in recent years. The results of this good performance are more those who still have ideals in the DPCA car.
In retrospect, this year's DPCA employees seem to have caught fire in two, one is He Yong, director of the Public Relations Administration Department of DPCA Automobile Co., Ltd., who has stayed in DPCA for 7 years, and the other is Zhao Jianjun, an engineer at the technical center of DPCA Automobile Co., Ltd., a 50-year-old company. Speaking of which, their way of fire is very special, even a little funny, but it hides the toughness and bloodiness of an old pawn.
At the Shanghai Auto Show in April this year, if you notice the Booth of Dongfeng Peugeot, you will definitely be attracted by the "enchanting" dance of a middle-aged man, yes, this person is He Yong, a public relations administration minister who has worked in DPCA for 7 years and is somewhat "old" in terms of position and seniority. And in the sea of people, he does not care about his identity and dance posture, but also wants to make Dongfeng Peugeot be paid more attention to, so that Dongfeng Peugeot's car sells even one more.
In fact, this is not easy to understand, after all, the DPCA car is not his home. In an exchange, He Yong told the editor of "Dao Ge Talk Car" about the reason why he was so desperate to market and sell cars. At that time, He Yong was still the secretary of the party committee of the second factory of DPCA Automobile, and after experiencing the period of DPCA's transformation from prosperity to decline, he personally watched DPCA automobile decline day by day and lay off two-thirds of the staff, and he felt very uncomfortable at that time. Employees who were laid off would also go to him, go to make trouble, shouting "can't eat", He Yong could only do at that time to appease, and even invite employees to eat at home to dredge, "At that time, it was difficult, it was difficult," He Yong recalled.
In the past few years when DPCA automobile was not good, He Yong had many opportunities to transfer to other enterprises under Dongfeng Company, but he never left. He Yong said that he stayed in DPCA for 7 years because he felt that only when the company became better, there was a reason to leave, and if he was a deserter when DPCA was in danger, he could not accept it.
And the other DPCA employee who is on fire this year is more masculine. According to Chen Bin, shortly after he took office last year, Zhao Jianjun, an employee of DPCA who engaged in technology research and development, sent him an email, "On May 18, 2021, if the overall sales of DPCA increase by 8%, I will run from Shiyan to Wuhan to complete a 518-kilometer ultra-long marathon!" After that, Chen Bin replied to the email, which probably means: We will not only increase by 8%, but also by 50%, or even more.
As a result, I believe many people also understand that in the first quarter of this year, DPCA achieved a good sales start, with a cumulative sales increase of 175%; on August 23, the cumulative sales reached 50,277 vehicles, completing last year's annual sales; in September this year, the sales of DPCA terminals exceeded 10,000, and the sales volume increased for 10 consecutive months. On the afternoon of October 10, a dark-skinned middle-aged man holding the red flag of "Eros Dragon Standing Dragon 518 km Ultra marathon" fulfilled his promise.
In November this year, DPCA touched the threshold of 100,000 annual sales, and climbed step by step with the bloodiness of this "real man".
If the dragon is prosperous, it is man-made
"We're not on the edge of the cliff, we've fallen, halfway up the mountain. How do you survive? Only self-help. Chen Bin said this when he first hung up the Shenlong car seal.
In fact, although DPCA has tough and bloody employees like He Yong and Zhao Jianjun, it is still a crumbling joint venture in the Chinese market, and even if its sales growth rate this year is amazing, the base is still nothing in the huge Chinese market.
As Chen Bin said, the Shenlong car is still a patient who can't get out of bed. So how does the Dragon Car save itself?
According to Mao Chuangxin, general manager of Dongfeng Citroën, during this year's Eleventh Golden Week, all their cadres did not choose to rest, and they were all working, busy studying sales, making plans and other aspects. As far as the DPCA as a whole is concerned, the work also has the meaning of tightening a string, Chen Bin revealed that since he took office, he will communicate with the French side every day, and then hold meetings and exchanges with the cadres of Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot. Moreover, DPCA automobiles have almost reached the point where everyone sells cars, and ministers are in charge of sales in various regions.
At the same time, both Chinese and French shareholders have also become active in dealing with the development of DPCA. According to reports, both shareholders have given DPCA full autonomy, allowing them to react quickly in decision-making, marketing, pricing and other aspects. It is understood that the pricing of the Versailles C5X can be taken one step at a time, which is closely related to the changes in this regard of DPCA. At the recent media communication meeting, this was also indirectly confirmed, in the past DPCA media communication meeting, the French leader must be present, and this time it is the Chinese team of DPCA, the only Representative of the French side - Dongfeng Peugeot General Manager Luo Ming is also Chinese, who previously worked in Weilai Automobile.
In this context, the sales volume of DPCA has increased significantly, and the annual dark horse has reached 5,000 vehicles per month, far exceeding the expected monthly delivery of 3,000 vehicles of DPCA.
Of course, in the sales of the Versailles C5X and the rest of the DPCA, there are still many problems. One of the most criticized is that the terminal 4S shops of French cars are too rare. They only have more than 150 4S stores in the country, while there are nearly 300 prefecture-level cities in the huge China, and the 4S stores with the Peugeot Citroen logo cannot even fully cover the prefecture-level cities in the Chinese market.
But the solution is people come up with, Chen Bin said, there is no outlets in the city, they will engage in direct sales, through the online sale of cars, and then shipped to consumers. And these problems, Peugeot, Citroen brand personnel have never shied away. Auto analyst Lin Xie believes that the monthly delivery of 5,000 vehicles in Versailles is not unrelated to the establishment of online retail channels by Dongfeng Dragon Automobile.
It is worth mentioning that the two brands of Peugeot and Citroen really have the intention to do a good job in service this time. According to reports, Zhu Yanfeng, chairman of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd., went to Dongfeng Citroen to investigate some time ago, personally inspected the communication between customer service personnel and users, and came to the conclusion that every user's complaint problem, customer service people are taken seriously, try their best to solve, DPCA is in the real operation of user relations.
And this attitude seems to be gradually changing people's perception of French cars. It is understood that most of the users of versailles C5X come from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and about 80% of them are buying French cars for the first time, and the young people aged 25 to 35 account for a large proportion. Auto analyst Lin Xie believes that the problem before the French car is that it is difficult to communicate after sales, and DPCA serves users well, and sales will always change.
Regarding the Versailles C5X, about the French car, there are many shortcomings in the analysis of the outside world and the reasons why the analysis is not selling well, and even to this day we can occasionally see the employees of the auto repair plant repairing the French car while repairing it while cursing it, which is complex in design, anti-human, and this kind of designer has no girlfriend. But we should also think that perhaps there are many reasons why they can sell well, such as the cost performance of the Versailles C5X, the service that French cars are getting better, the words "the material is OK" often thrown by car repairmen, and those who strive to make the DPCA from the ICU to the general ward.