For DPCA and french brands Peugeot and Citroen, from being the backbone of China's auto market to becoming a marginal brand, everything seems to be yesterday.
In the face of the decline, the French finally could not sit still.
According to the Daily Economic News quoted informed sources, DPCA is about to usher in the "two-bedroom and one-hall" model, that is, DPCA retains as a production base and maintains the existing share ratio; its two major brands will fight for each other, with Dongfeng Peugeot dominated by the French side and Dongfeng Citroen dominated by the Chinese side.
This also means that the cooperation model inherent in the two major brands of DPCA and Peugeot Citroen for many years is about to undergo a great change.
Unlike other joint venture car companies, Peugeot and Citroen, the two major brands of the former PSA Group, have always adopted a consistent action policy in the Chinese market.
That is to say, the two major brands are uniformly decided by DPCA, and are consistent with the outside world, trying to avoid internal competition.
Under such a program of action, DPCA has also experienced glory before, but in recent years, it has gradually declined and gradually become a DPCA on the edge of the market, which obviously needs new ideas.
In fact, whether peugeot or Citroen, the sales volume in the European market in their hometown is not bad, in 2021, the combined sales of the two brands in the European market are close to 1.18 million, second only to Volkswagen, ranking second, peugeot 2008, 3008 and other models are long-term domination of the top three positions in the same level of sales.
In view of why the Chinese market has been dissatisfied with the situation, in recent years, DPCA has also carried out a lot of summaries and new attempts to seek a breakthrough.
For example, DPCA has proposed to create products that are close to the needs of Chinese customers, tell the story of the two major brands of Peugeot and Citroen, and impress Chinese customers through service to win customers.
Dongfeng Citroen C3L, a cross-border model born in the context of this idea, officially believes that this car combines the comfort of the car and the passability of the SUV, and also has a high enough body and a large enough space, which is the only choice for "small city new generation".
However, such an official believes that the beauty of the car and the domineering C3L of the SUVs are in one, standing at the level of consumers, the views are very different, more people think that the C3L strange shape is not good,000, and finally this car quickly fell cold after the listing, with annual sales of less than a thousand.
But there are also success stories.
Last year, the Versailles C5 X model launched by the Dongfeng Citroen brand also adopted a cross-border style and was also built for domestic consumers, but achieved unprecedented success.
According to official data, the Versailles C5 X, which was launched in late September last year, sold nearly 13,000 vehicles in 2021, with a single monthly delivery volume of more than 5,000 vehicles, which is the best annual sales model in the French system in the Chinese market and the most successful model launched by DPCA in the past seven years.
Under the influence of the hot sales of Versailles, Dongfeng Citroen officially announced that its sales volume in 2021 increased by 137% year-on-year.
It can be seen that Shenlong and Peugeot Citroen are not stable in understanding the Chinese market, and relying only on a car from Versailles is obviously far from enough for the revival of the French system.
Then, whether it is the French "romantic" car-making concept that has been dissatisfied with the soil and the product, or whether the Dragon has deviated at the marketing level, covering up the brilliance of the product, china and France naturally have their own arguments, and differences are inevitable.
With the merger of PSA and FCA, the Sellantis Group, which is trying to reshape the Chinese market, must have also thought deeply about the way to break the game, and at present, China and France are leading a brand to fight separately, which may be one of the best solutions at present.
With the two brands about to be dominated by both Chinese and foreign parties, it is equivalent to introducing an internal competition mechanism.
Brother fighting, derby battle, to see whether it is the Chinese side and the French side who understands the Chinese market better and has better results, are all a good strategy.
After all, first-line joint venture brands including Volkswagen, Toyota, and Honda have two or more joint venture companies, and the homogenization of models has been more serious, and there is also a certain degree of internal competition, but overall, it is still of positive significance for the market share of the entire Volkswagen and Toyota brands in China.
For DPCA, after the independence of the future sales company, DPCA will return to the production base attribute and focus on improving the quality of vehicles in the manufacturing process, which is also good for Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot.
So the question is, which do you think is better in the Chinese method?