After Renault withdrew from the Chinese market, the hope of French cars was pinned on DPCA. From the data of the Association of Passenger Transport associations, in 2021, the market share of French cars in China is only 0.4%, if you look at it from the perspective of big data, it will indeed make people feel that French cars are "declining" in the Chinese market.
Looking back at history, DPCA has had many legendary products, such as Beverly Wilshire, Elysée, Xena, Peugeot 206, etc., and until now it can still make many car fans remember it vividly. However, since the rise of independent brands, DPCA, represented by French cars, has been going downhill all the way, and car companies carrying a lot of old halos have declined, which has made many French fans sigh and many people are looking forward to the return of DPCA to glory.
What is surprising is that with the re-creation of the product line in 2021, DPCA achieved sales of more than 100,000 vehicles in 2021, stopping the continuous decline in sales. In 2022, the first monthly sales of DPCA automobile has exceeded 13,000 units, and the sales volume in January will increase by 90.2% year-on-year, which is the first time that DPCA has sold more than 13,000 vehicles in the first month after four years. For DPCA, which has been silent for a long time, it is not easy to usher in the "opening red" in the first month of 2022.
There is no doubt that the new products and new models of adjustment launched in 2021 have indeed enabled The Dragon Group to successfully break through from the trough. Although the sales data of specific models in January has not yet been released, it is not difficult to find that versailles in 2021 have indeed driven the sales of DPCA Group to soar, and from the perspective of the sales volume of DPCA automobiles that have exceeded 10,000 in the past three months, Versailles, which ranks second in the annual sales list of French cars, has played a role that cannot be ignored.
The Shenlong car, which fought against the water, gradually entered a better state
In 2019, DPCA released a meta-plan with a time node of 2019-2025, which is divided into three stages:
The first phase is 2019, focusing on "surviving". At this stage, DPCA plans to reduce the break-even point to less than 180,000 vehicles through throttling measures, and strive to achieve positive cash flow.
The second stage is 2020-2021, through the implementation of a series of reforms, the restoration of system capacity, sales gradually increased to the level of 250,000 vehicles, while the break-even point further reduced to 150,000 vehicles, to achieve stable profitability;
The third stage is 2022-2025, the company plans to achieve a breakthrough in sales through product structure adjustment and more Chinese product launch, return to the scale of 400,000 vehicles and stabilize, driving the sustainable development of the whole value chain.
Looking back at this plan now, it is true that DPCA is still some distance away from the plan. From the objective point of view, the sudden epidemic and the continuous spread of chip shortage problems can be said to be a lot of pressure for DPCA that wants to carry out drastic reforms, especially after the outbreak of the epidemic in Wuhan, the delay in resuming work and production has also affected the production of DPCA group in 2020. Subjectively, the silence of French cars also makes Citroen, Peugeot and its products under DPCA not get enough publicity "radiation", so it is not easy to promote marketing and product sales.
Subsequently, DPCA launched the Yuan + plan to further concretize the revival strategy. In addition to the sinicization of product strategy and the precision of marketing, it also puts forward the "five-heart guardian action" for users to further maintain the loyal old owners who love French cars.
Indeed, the maintenance problem of French cars has always been the pain point of many potential car buyers, and the general manager of DPCA Automobile also expressed his determination to fight a battle at the 2020 DPCA Automobile Culture Festival, which frankly said, "The policies we issued did not leave a way back for DPCA, because we have now no way to retreat." We must break the previous inefficiency, the market response is not timely, customers complain about the big problem, through a series of reforms to force dealers, forced DPCA to truly achieve customer service to the extreme, truly customer-centric. "This kind of drastic reform is a good medicine to reverse the sales of DPCA automobiles that have been declining."
In 2021, DPCA has successively carried out medium-term modifications to Models such as Peugeot 408, Peugeot 4008, Peugeot 508, Peugeot 5008 and Citroen C3-XR, which has been combined with the marketing strategy close to users, making the sales of these models increase significantly compared with the previous year. But it has to be said that in terms of PHEV models, the current acceptance of peugeot and Citroen's products in the market still needs to be improved, and how to transform in the electric environment is also a key issue that DPCA group needs to solve this year.
Can peugeot's left-to-right, Citroën's right-wing strategy succeed?
After Stellantis Group made the first share ratio adjustment of GAC FCA in 2022, it was rumored that Stellantis Group would carry out a more subdivided operation strategy for Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen. According to insiders in the industry, the reform of DPCA retains as a production base and maintains the existing share ratio; its two major brands, Dongfeng Peugeot, is led by the French side, with a capital increase and share expansion to 75%; Dongfeng Citroen is led by the Chinese side, increasing capital and expanding shares to 75%. ”
This kind of stock ratio adjustment is called "two rooms and one hall" within the Shenlong, and "two rooms" refers to the fact that under the condition that the existing stock ratio remains unchanged, the two brands of Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot are dominated by China and France respectively. "One hall" refers to the sharing of existing public areas such as commodity planning, technology, quality, and industrial production.
This kind of stock ratio adjustment is quite interesting, Peugeot has increased the right to speak, while Citroen has increased the right to speak on the Chinese side. The Stellantis Group seems to want to see who of the two brothers, in two operating models, can prioritize the entry into the increasingly serious joint venture car market.
In the view of the cylinder brother, although the two brands are the same in the family car market, in recent years, the two orientations of Peugeot to sport and Citroën to comfort have been highlighted within the Stellantis Group. In this environment, the Chinese side's leading citroën innovation is obviously more advantageous than the French side. Under the general trend of intelligence, whether it is the innovation of vehicle-machine OTA or driving assistance, it has completely subverted the consideration of the comfort of each car owner, after all, travel is comfortable enough, and it is also a heavy experience of comfort.
Thanks to the recognition of sports models in the domestic market in recent years, Peugeot's Peugeot 208, Peugeot 307, Peugeot 508PSE versions with sports attributes can be introduced, and with the strategy of differentiation, they can enter various market segments, and may be able to help Peugeot rise again.
Write at the end
Close to a product from Versailles, it is still difficult to return the DPCA to the previous "peak". But under the strategy of two bedrooms and one living room this year, DPCA may be able to bring us more unexpected surprises, at least in the shrinking joint venture car market, DPCA can maintain a positive growth, which is just to show that consumers are beginning to accept the strategy of French cars, and the strategy of DPCA is gradually accepting, and brother Cylinder also looks forward to bringing us more powerful counterattacks in 2022.