Recently, Stellantis Group released the "Dare Forward 2030" strategic plan, which released an important news, that is, Peugeot and Citroen will adopt a "two-room, one-room" plan in China, that is, the Chinese side and the French side will lead Citroën and Peugeot respectively.
In fact, there have been many rumors that DPCA and the Chinese side and the French side disagree, the Chinese side prefers that the products and marketing of DPCA Automobile are more in line with the needs of Chinese consumers, but the French side refuses to compromise in terms of products and pricing, which has also led to a serious decline in sales of French cars in recent years.
In 2015, The sales of French cars once reached a peak of 700,000 units, but then, the French car began to decline, and from 2016 to 2020, the sales of French cars were cut year by year, only 113,500 in 2019 and only 50,000 in 2020.
It wasn't until last year, with the launch of the Versailles C5 X, that sales of French cars picked up, reaching 100,000 units, of which Peugeot and Citroën each accounted for about half. In 2021, Peugeot sold 51,056 units, an increase of 73.8% year-on-year, and Citroen sold 49,511 units, an increase of 137.2% year-on-year.
In such a situation, The Sino-French division of Citroën and Peugeot seems to have become the last attempt of the Stellantis Group to save the french car failure, if successful, the DPCA may come back to life, but if it fails, Peugeot and Citroën may follow in the footsteps of Renault.
In 2019, DPCA proposed a dual-brand strategy, that is, Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot 4S stores merged, and one store can sell citroen and Peugeot models at the same time. This has indeed played an effective role in reducing the cost of building a store and contributing to the expansion of the two major brands, but the competition between China and France in terms of discourse power and the dissatisfaction of the French side in marketing and product design have also led to a decline in the share of French cars year by year.
In this regard, other joint venture brands may be able to provide a sample for French cars. SAIC Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen, Dongfeng Honda and GAC Toyota, are under the control of different companies, have achieved good results, these joint venture car companies, generally foreign parties are responsible for research and development and production, The Chinese side is responsible for marketing, therefore, DPCA is obviously hoping to learn from these brands to learn from experience.
So can the two-bedroom and one-hall plan get the French car out of the predicament?
Although in 2021, the sales of French cars have briefly picked up, but the crisis of Dongfeng Dragon Automobile has not been lifted, the market heat of Versailles is gradually fading, and the sales performance is also declining, it is difficult to save the French car on the edge of the cliff by relying on this model alone, how to use the heat of Versailles to release more competitive models and drive brand recovery is the most important problem that DPCA needs to solve.