Less than a month before May 18th, DPCA Automobile Co., Ltd. is about to celebrate its 30th birthday. Under these thirty-year conditions, Dongfeng Group and Stellantis Group have integrated the business of DPCA, and Dongfeng Group and Stellantis (early PSA Group) may independently operate the Peugeot Citroen brand in this regard. The separation of the two major automobile groups is not the beginning of the beginning, and it has been laid for a while ago.
(Picture from the official website of DPCA)
Briefly speaking about the origin of Peugeot Citroen. Most people know that Peugeot Citroen is a French famous car, what is less known is: peugeot brand originally made its fortune in the production of grinders, Citroën is the manufacturer of gears, the founders of the two companies, Armand Peugeot and Andre gradually expanded the small commodity manufacturing business into the automotive field, peugeot brand before the Citroën brand in the automotive industry. As the wheels of history advanced, in 1976 Peugeot merged with Citroën and PSA Group was founded as the French first automobile company.
(Image from Jingdong Mall)
(Image from Baidu)
Of course, what we want to talk about today is not to introduce the history of Peugeot and Citroën, so let's focus our attention back on PSA Citroen's love affair with China, Peugeot Citroen's development in the Chinese market has always staged a decline of "good times are not long".
This also starts from 1980, Guangzhou Peugeot, which is the beginning of the French Peugeot's entry into the Chinese market. In nine years, Peugeot once reached the top by introducing many explosive models into the resource-poor Chinese market at that time, but it fell to the bottom due to the low degree of non-localization production and high-cost imported assembly routes.
In 1997, with the divestment of Peugeot, the initial exploration of the Chinese market was announced. During the same period, Dongfeng Company and Citroën Company successfully joined hands to form DPCA Automobile Company. At that time, the first families to enter the well-off were proud to own a Wellcome car. The Peugeot brand also followed suit, opening up the Chinese market for the second time.
(Image from Baidu)
In the following years, Peugeot Citroen and Dongfeng Group carried out a close cooperative relationship, and each of them showed the greatest sincerity and the technology of the housekeeper model to promote cooperation and increase sales in China, which was a honeymoon period. In 2012, DPCA ended with 440,000 sales, and reached its peak in 2014. In 2016, the sales of DPCA automobiles fell sharply, which is not unrelated to peugeot Citroen's strategic mistakes in China, Chinese people's demand for a better life is increasing day by day, and small cars can no longer meet the preferences of the Chinese who have become rich.
The Peugeot Citroen brand has always maintained the proud pedigree of French cars, not to cater to, to stop moving forward, and as a result, it has gradually lost market share and is unstoppable. Although DPCA and Dongfeng Group have continuously proposed the revival of the "Yuan" plan, overtaking in curves, returning to the track and other strategies to turn the tide, the decadence of DPCA is fully demonstrated.
Speaking of Citroen's luxury brands, in 2010, the PSA luxury car DS brand was officially announced in Shanghai to enter the Chinese market, and China Changan Automobile Group and Peugeot Citroen established Changan PSA Company, which is committed to the development and production of light commercial vehicles, passenger cars and new energy vehicles. The wish is beautiful, the reality is bone, and the data of 27,000 to 422 sales shows that DS's performance in China is far less than the ambition it had at the beginning of its entry. Changan PSA also set up a series of brand revitalization plans to save the decline, but to no avail, in the end, Changan Group sold the shares of Changan PSA in full. DS, as a luxury brand of Peugeot Citroen, has been strangled in the cradle before it has launched the sign of luxury car series.
In 2018, DPCA moved the two brand departments of Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen from Beijing back to its headquarters in Wuhan. In 2019, just when Dongfeng Group and PSA also officially announced that the cooperation period will be extended to 2037, and the French side promised not to withdraw from the Chinese market before 2037, PSA and FCA merged in April 2020, Dongfeng Group reduced its stake in PSA, and Stellantis was born, which also means that PSA, which has existed for 45 years, has since disappeared from the public eye. In 2021, the "Yuan +" plan of Dongfeng Group and Stellantis Group has achieved some results, but the cross-century epidemic has made the last attempt of the French car like a heavy blow to cotton, which cannot arouse a ripple.
At the beginning of 2022, Dongfeng Group and Stellantis Group integrated the business of Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Auto Finance to Dongfeng Motor Group, that is, Dongfeng Group will acquire 75% of dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Auto Finance. This is one of the few Chinese reverse takeovers that open up a new business model. Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Auto Finance Co., Ltd. was established in 2006, at the beginning of its establishment by Bank of China Group Insurance Co., Ltd. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of China), DPCA Automobile Co., Ltd., PSA Peugeot Citroen Dutch Finance Company jointly funded the establishment, is an early licensed auto finance company, after three equity transfers and changes, and finally by Dongfeng Motor Group, DPCA Motor Company, Stellantis Group's Banque PSA Fiance's subsidiary PSA Peugeot Citroën Netherlands Finance holds 25%, 25% and 50% of the shares, and as sales of the PSA brand declined, the penetration of its brand finance company also weakened slightly.
It is understood that Stellantis Group's wholly-owned auto finance company, Fiat Chrysler Auto Finance Co., Ltd. may take over the Peugeot financial business, and it is reported that it will also provide financial business support for brands such as DS, Jeep, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and so on. The nationalized Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Auto Finance Co., Ltd. may provide financial business support together with Dongfeng Finance, another wholly-owned subsidiary of Dongfeng Group. In the future, DPCA will continue to serve as a production base, with Stellantis leading the Peugeot brand of DPCA and Dongfeng Group leading the Citroen brand.
(Image from the official website of Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Auto Finance Co., Ltd.)
Perhaps, it is the DS and Changan PSA, Renault and Dongfeng's flash away, french cars have left the market, but in just two or three years to return to the Chinese market, re-formulate the plan in China, after the separation of independent research and development, independent operation of the innovative route for the Dongfeng Group and The Stellantis Group to provide ideas for the operation. Perhaps, independent management can achieve the free development of the two groups and release each other's right to speak in decision-making, so whether the new playing method of independent operation brand can cure the water and soil dissatisfaction for more than 40 years, and what wonderful things can be brought to us in terms of design style, let us wait and see.