After 5 years of cliff fall, DPCA is finally growing, peugeot, Citroen "alive"?

Wen | Han Ling, author of the weekly magazine "Finance and Economics"

Editor| Mao Shiyang

On December 28, DPCA officially released the news that it has completed the annual sales target of 100,000 vehicles ahead of schedule this year, and the sales volume of a single month (September to November) exceeded 10,000 for three consecutive months, achieving positive year-on-year sales growth for 13 consecutive months. Shenlong rushed to report the good news in advance at the end of the year, in fact, this year's sales volume compared with the previous years of "falling and falling", finally has a rebound trend, it seems to bid farewell to the sharp decline for five consecutive years.

According to the data, DPCA sold 14,000 vehicles in November, an increase of 158% year-on-year, and from January to November, DPCA sold 87,000 vehicles, a cumulative increase of 97% year-on-year. As early as the release of sales in November, Chen Bin, general manager and party secretary of DPCA Automobile Co., Ltd., revealed that it has become an established fact that DPCA broke 100,000 vehicles this year.

In fact, in August this year, the cumulative sales of Shenlong has exceeded that of last year, reaching 50,000 vehicles, a cumulative increase of 75% year-on-year. However, whether it is the annual sales of 50,000 vehicles last year or the target of 100,000 vehicles this year, Shenlong is still far from subversion.

In 2015, the sales volume of The dragon reached a peak of about 700,000 vehicles, and since then it has continued to decline, and the growth rate in 2016-2020 has fallen by 15.2%, 36.85%, 32.89%, 55.17% and 55.74% respectively, and the annual sales volume has also fallen from 700,000 to more than 50,000 last year. This year, the cumulative sales of Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen under Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen under DPCA exceeded 100,000, which is not high compared with the sales of other car companies, but it gives people a feeling of bottoming out.

In fact, in recent years, affected by the epidemic and the impact of new energy vehicles on fuel vehicles, fuel joint venture car companies are facing increasing pressure in the domestic market, especially compared with german and Japanese joint venture brands, the representative of French cars, Shenlong, is even more miserable.

In order to reverse the decline in sales, Shenlong has made some adjustments in product launch this year. Since March this year, Shenlong has begun to launch many new cars such as 2021 Tianyi, new 4008, new 5008, new C3-XR, 2022 508L, 2008 THE ONE, Versailles C5 X and Tianyi Ride Adaptation.

On the one hand, the launch of new models has indeed increased overall sales, but on the other hand, similar model positioning and price ranges have also made the "fight" of internal brands more obvious. Dongfeng Peugeot has always been the main force in the sales of Dongfeng Peugeot, and the data shows that from January to July this year, the sales volume of DPCA vehicles was 44,000 units, of which Dongfeng Peugeot was 30,000 units and Dongfeng Citroen was 13,000 vehicles.

Dongfeng Peugeot's models include Peugeot 408, Peugeot 508L, Peugeot 2008, etc. In April, DPCA launched two models, the new Peugeot 5008 and the new Peugeot 4008, of which the Peugeot 5008 guide is priced at 18.77-27.37 million yuan, and the Peugeot 4008 is 16.97-24.37 million yuan.

It can be seen that Dongfeng Peugeot has many models, but there is no explosion, and the price difference between the new and old models is not obvious, resulting in a sales gap of almost nothing. November data show that Dongfeng Peugeot sales of 4600 vehicles, of which, Peugeot 408, Peugeot 508L, Peugeot 5008 and Peugeot 4008 these models sales are basically maintained at about 700-1200 vehicles, the other several, sales are very dismal.

Dongfeng Citroen this year, relying on the newly launched hot-selling Model Versailles C5 X, has achieved a counterattack against Dongfeng Peugeot. In November, Dongfeng Citroen's monthly sales volume was about 9,900 units, of which the Versailles C5 X sales reached 4,500 units, accounting for 46% of Dongfeng Citroen's monthly sales. Other models, such as Tianyi C5 AIRCROSS, Citroen C6, Citroën C3L, etc., sales are also sluggish, basically below 1,000 units.

Industry insiders believe that the long-term sales of the Shenlong double brand are not good, in addition to the market environment, the frequent personnel changes within the enterprise have accelerated the decline of The dragon.

According to the data, due to the sharp decline in sales in 2016 and 2017, DPCA has made many personnel adjustments, and the marketing department directors, general managers and deputy general managers of the brand department, as well as other executives of Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen have been transferred or resigned. In June this year, Dong Anyin, former vice minister of dongfeng Peugeot's brand department, was suspected of serious job violations and was under supervision and investigation by the Chongyang County Supervision Commission of Xianning City, and took measures of retention in custody. Zhang Yuguang, former director of dongfeng citroen brand marketing department, and Yang Ning, former vice minister of dongfeng citroen brand marketing department, were also exposed earlier to be suspected of serious job violations.

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