Text | Joey
To this day, I still vividly remember the pleasure of driving smoothly when I first drove the imported 3008. Although it was impossible to do the speed measuring instruments of the French traffic police like in "Taxi Express", that driving experience was almost my dream car in the years when I was not obsessed with golf.
In the years when French cars were at their hottest, there were actually not a few people who shared the same ideas as me. After all, everyone loves a maverick, aesthetically pleasing car, and the insistence of never giving up the torsion beam to hang behind while adjusting its driving experience exceptionally well.
Such persistence has received good feedback from the market. For a time, several models represented by French cars, including the Peugeot 307 and Citroën's Sega, were almost among the most competitive family cars in the joint venture brand. At the same time, Renault's Koleao has become an important option for a small number of elites to choose SUVs to distinguish themselves from the public aesthetic.
The days of the French car scenery seem to be close at hand, but they seem to be far away from us.
The scenery is no longer,
A rapidly declining French car
Just a few days ago, Renault Brilliance announced its withdrawal from the Chinese market. This exit announced Renault's complete departure from the Chinese auto market. Because earlier in 2020, Renault's passenger car business has already taken the lead in exiting China.
In addition to Renault, another high-end symbol of French cars, the DS, has quickly entered the downward channel after selling 27,000 units in 2015. In 2020, DS only sold more than 40,000 vehicles worldwide, and only sold 425 vehicles in the Chinese market (the data for 2021 has not yet been found, but presumably DS wants to completely turn over, it is actually difficult).
Such sales data is unimaginable in the world's largest automobile consumer market. And these are undoubtedly an important indicator, marking that the French car has no way to retreat in the Chinese market, and it seems that only withdrawing from the stage of competition is the only feasible way.
Of course, not all French cars have reached this point. Peugeot and Citroen of the Dongfeng system still seem to have a little chance to turn the tide. Just recently, DPCA announced that it will achieve an annual sales task of 100,000 vehicles in 2021 (of which the Dongfeng Peugeot brand sold 51,056 vehicles).
Although it seems that the task is completed, the task is actually built on a relatively low level. In fact, only 5 or 6 years ago, the two brands of DPCA were still unlimited. In the three years from 2014 to 2016, the total sales of these two brands reached 2 million units. But since then, the sales volume of DPCA has begun to show a cliff-like decline.
In the four years from 2017 to 2020, sales of French cars plummeted from 380,000 to 50,000. Even if this year is back on the road of doubling, its sales can still be described as difficult. In fact, the total sales of these two French brands in the past year are only equivalent to the Shenche Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, which sold a quarter of last year (the model sold a total of 400,000 units in 2021).
What makes these two brands of French cars, in just a few years from the joint venture brand top stream, quickly flowing to mediocrity?
Give me a reason to choose a legal system?
If we look at the timeline of the decline of French cars, we will find a particularly interesting phenomenon. That is, since 2016, new energy and new cars have begun to set off a new wave in the automobile industry, especially china's automobile industry, and people have gradually begun to accept changes in the pattern of the automobile industry.
Since then, the choice of car consumers has begun to take on a whole new direction. High-end cars, such as the BBA, began to introduce more entry-level automotive products for more users to buy. Users who did not choose this route began to accept products launched by domestic car brands.
The reasons for such a change are diverse. First of all, a considerable number of new forces have built cars, taking advantage of Tesla's luxury positioning with science and technology, and have embarked on the route of building luxury car brands. This makes the BBA, which originally positioned the brand above the ordinary joint venture brand, begin to face more competitors. In contrast, the living space of ordinary joint venture brand cars has been squeezed as never before.
The disappearance of the halo of the joint venture brand is not the most serious problem. If the product is strong, there is obviously still a chance to turn over against the wind. But at this point, it is precisely an important shortcoming of the French car. This short board is the lack of innovation.
In the past, relying on the maverick design concept and the blessing of BUFF in the French romantic country, people mostly tolerated or even loved some "anti-human" designs of French cars. However, with the rise of Chinese car brands, Chinese consumers who have "eaten and seen" have begun to have their own independent aesthetic concepts.
What's more, aside from the European giants who can play with design such as BBA, even China's domestic car brands have begun to "support" in design. The aesthetics of domestic cars are increasingly able to represent the direction of mainstream aesthetics, among which the design directors from European giants have played a decisive role.
Geely Motors recruited former Bentley design director Stephen Silaf, Great Wall Motors hired former Land Rover design director Phil Simmons, BYD also hired former Audi design director Wolfgang Egger...
The arrival of these "big guys" has suddenly moved the aesthetic level of domestic cars to a new level. At this time, looking back at the design concept and design language of the French car, it cannot be said to be backward, but it is definitely not leading.
More importantly, the rise of new energy vehicles has made the performance of cars, at least paper performance, begin to roll sharply. In the past, the performance aura that was imposed on the French locomotive, such as the WRC and dakar, from the arena, suddenly became less dazzling.
And the technologies and configurations built on these halos that don't match market demand (such as engines without more than 2.0T displacement, without more advanced self-propelled transmission technology, and the torsion beam cult that has never been abandoned) are obviously more difficult for consumers to pay.
Therefore, in this period of time, we are still discussing the living space of joint venture car companies, which has become precarious, and the French car brands that have taken the non-mainstream and small fresh route in the joint venture car companies in the past seem to be more difficult to find their own way of survival in the cracks. Therefore, the decline in sales is also logical.
After all, if you want to choose a French car, it is difficult to give a decent reason today.
Versailles,
Can you give French cars a chance to "Versailles"?
Any market that gives a single brand an equal opportunity, especially a brand that has achieved good results in the market and has won the favor of consumers. The only thing these brands have to do is to really come up with good products to meet consumer preferences.
At this point, in fact, it is particularly suitable for French cars, especially Peugeot and Citroen, which have launched explosive products. Just at the end of September last year, Citroën launched the Versailles C5 X.
The Versailles C5 X is a product that still upholds the unique design aesthetic of French cars. The difference is that this time Citroën's aesthetic began to go to the path of wide acceptance by users. It's hard to define what this somewhat "four-like" Versailles C5 X looks like.
It could be a sedan that was elevated, or a Coupe version of the SUV that the BBA or even Geely was happy to go today, or it could be a station wagon with a big slip. If in the past, people have tired of the maverick aesthetic of the French car, then this car makes the functionality of the car become three-dimensional from the appearance. You can start from any need to find the point that fits you.
Of course, the problem i said before can still be found on this car. Like what. The 1.6T engine is matched by Aisin's 8-speed hand self-contained. Obviously, this car still does not have an engine of more than 2.0T, still does not have its own transmission technology, and even the suspension is still a torsion beam type (although from the official website, the relevant description is deformable beam suspension). Even the width of the 205 tires was questioned as whether some were too narrow.
However, these are still not a problem, after all, consumers' demand for appearance and functionality is still in the first place. The price of 143,700-186,700 yuan (the price of the fuel version of the model in Europe is close to about 250,000 yuan, and the plug-in version is more expensive than 100,000 yuan) seems to be able to meet the needs of its competition with domestic cars. After all, domestic brands such as BYD have begun to make more than 900,000 yuan of products.
Since its listing in September. The Versailles C5X has sold nearly 13,000 units. Although for any big brand, the number of single models sold for more than three months is not a worthy of a big book. But for DPCA, this sales performance has become the biggest guarantee for them to complete 100,000 KPIs.
But for consumers, a Versailles C5 X with a somewhat novel design but no major breakthrough in technology is obviously still difficult to trigger their desire to buy. So what exactly makes these 13,000+people willingly take out their wallets?
Preserving value is the killer
Value is the core driver of car sales.
So, what can really reflect the value of a car? New technologies, and the power of products that are truly built for users, are really part of the value. However, when the life cycle of the vehicle ends, the recycling residual value of a car is the last and most important piece of the puzzle to realize the value of the whole life cycle of the car.
This is especially evident in new energy vehicles. For new energy vehicles, especially pure electric vehicles, power batteries are their core values. The attenuation cycle of the power battery is much shorter than the scrap cycle of the traditional internal combustion engine. Therefore, new energy vehicles will produce irreconcilable contradictions that buying a car is more expensive than the internal combustion engine, and selling a car is not worth much.
In view of this problem, many new car manufacturers, and even the new energy products of traditional car companies, will launch the behavior of insuring vehicle prices. That is to say, after a period of use, car companies can recycle vehicles at the price of the original car purchased, so as to completely eliminate the concerns about the subsequent residual value when users buy pure electric vehicles.
However, for traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, such a criterion does not apply. Their residual value will be comprehensively judged by the technical strength of the vehicle, the stability of product quality, the amount of market circulation, and the brand value attributes. At this point, there is no new technology, no new car circulation stock, the quality of the vehicle can not be judged, and the brand value is not as good as the previous Versailles C5 X, which seems to have nothing to do with it.
Therefore, if you want to sell well, it seems that you need the blessing of corporate sales policies. What DPCA thinks of is the price insurance strategy that has been widely adopted by new energy vehicles. For now, Dongfeng Citroen has not only launched the "New Car Price Reduction Compensation Commitment within 1 year" to guarantee the value of the vehicle, but also further introduced the "3-year value preservation" policy.
Under this policy, Dongfeng Citroen will be able to buy back vehicles for 85% of the fare within one year, and then reduce by 10% per year for the next two years. Although this policy may still be a big gap compared with the new energy vehicles that can be repurchased at the original price, compared with the value collapse in the second-hand car market due to the small amount of possible circulation, Dongfeng Citroen has done all the efforts they can do.
The future is certainly not the world of oil trucks
Obviously, even in the case that the Versailles C5 X may set off a new upsurge in the sales of French cars, it is still a very outdated topic for us to discuss the success of oil cars in this era. In fact, European giants have long set their sights on the field of new energy vehicles.
Both BBA and Volkswagen have frantically launched new new energy vehicle products last year. Whether it is the EQ series, or the ID. series, whether it is the e-tron that has been sold for many years, or BMW's iX and i4, the giants hope to seize their own new energy market share by 2025. What about French cars?
In fact, as early as 2019, PSA Group launched its own new energy plan, and the phased goal is also set in 2025. According to the goal of that year, PSA will launch DS7 by 2021, Peugeot 3008, Peugeot 508 and other 8 plug-in hybrid models, and there are DS 3, Peugeot 208, Peugeot 2008 and other 7 pure electric vehicle models; and in 2024, PSA will launch L3 level driverless technology.
So, what about in the Chinese market? What is DPCA's new energy vehicle product plan?
In fact, whether it is Dongfeng Peugeot or Dongfeng Citroen, it has launched its own new energy products. Dongfeng Peugeot has 508L and 4008 PHEV models, as well as an e2008 pure electric model, while Dongfeng Citroen has launched a tianyi C5 plug-in hybrid model. But in the process of actual promotion, the sound volume of these models is almost completely unrecognized.
It can be seen that it is not a sustainable plan to rely only on the Versailles C5 X, which may trigger a boom, to lead the next stage of the revival of French cars in the Chinese market. And the real lane change overtaking (in fact, it seems that it is a little late to change lanes now), using new energy and intelligent cars to seize the future, may be a good way for French cars to re-support the Chinese market.
After all, the car still has to look good, and the technology still has to be updated. For French cars, the first one is undoubtedly a natural advantage; the second one seems to need to be strengthened for now.
Emotionally, I, who used the 3008 as the car of my dreams, obviously still hope that the French car can get back on its feet in China. For more consumers, in addition to design, French cars with better technology and higher value retention are the products they want to spend money to buy.
Therefore, if the French car wants to win better development in the Chinese market, perhaps it is a good way to meet the above needs.