AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/15 Report--

On January 14th, Peugeot-Citroen (hereinafter referred to as PSA) held a shareholders' meeting, at which PSA announced global sales of 2.5 million vehicles in 2020, a figure that does not seem low, but down 28.57% from 3.5 million in 2019.

Perhaps because of the epidemic, the overall sales of PSA Group declined in 2020. For those markets that did not meet expectations, PSA Group did not release specific sales, but adopted another way to summarize the performance of major markets.

In the Middle East and Africa, for example, PSA said its deliveries rose 21% to 201000 vehicles compared with 2019, amid a 14% decline in the overall car market. In the European market, for example, PSA says it grew rapidly in the second half of the year, up 40 per cent compared with the first half of 2020. Without mentioning the overall performance for the whole year, it can be predicted that the decline in the group's sales in Europe in the first half of the year will be much greater than the growth in the second half of the year.

The same is true in the Chinese market, where PSA Group also did not release specific figures, but described it as "after the challenges of the first half of the year, the group's sales in China have grown month-on-month since September and year-on-year growth in December 2020." It is not difficult to predict that PSA Group's performance in the Chinese market is also not satisfactory.

At present, the main joint venture brand of PSA Group in China is DPCA Automobile, which owns Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen brands. According to KuaiBao, the sales volume disclosed by Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd., the cumulative sales of DPCA in 2020 was 50267, down 55.74% from the same period last year. Among them, car sales in December were 6397, up 15.80% from the same period last year. This is the first time in 30 months that DMC's monthly sales have increased compared with the same period last year.

For non-industry insiders, considering the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the automobile market in 2020, it does not seem to be too much for DPCA sales to halve. Sustained month-on-month growth in the fourth quarter and year-on-year growth in December may think that DPCA has achieved good results, or that DPCA has a rising trend.

Compared with Dongfeng Honda, its cumulative sales in 2020 was 850300 vehicles, up 6.28% from a year earlier. Dongfeng Honda, whose headquarters and factory is located in Wuhan, Hubei Province, also had a serious impact on production and operation because of the epidemic in the first half of the year, but rose all the way in the second half of the year and finally achieved a growth rate of 6.28%.

It is not difficult to see that although DPCA continues to achieve month-on-month growth in the fourth quarter, its overall performance is still in the doldrums in 2020. In particular, in December, although it achieved year-on-year growth, the performance of 6397 vehicles was even lower than that of Dongfeng Honda, a mainstream model, which is hardly optimistic. Some netizens even revealed that the reason why DPCA achieved year-on-year growth in Nangou in December was mostly taxi orders, but there was no direct evidence to confirm whether it was true or false.

Review the performance of DPCA in recent years. Since its sales peaked in 2014, DPCA has been declining, falling by 15.2%, 36.85%, 32.89%, 55.17% and 55.74% respectively from 2016 to 2020, halving sales for two years in a row.

Of course, for DPCA, in any case, the year-on-year increase in sales in December also opened a new starting point for development in 2021. According to the DPCA product plan, 14 new models will be launched in the next 5 years. Dongfeng Peugeot brand, medium-term revamped Peugeot 4008 and 5008 models were launched in March, the two new cars are using a new design approach. Dongfeng Citroen brand, plans to launch Tianyi C5 AIRCROSS annual model, C3-XR medium-term model and a new strategic model.

Shenlong car sales halved, seems to be due to the impact of the epidemic, but the most fundamental reason is the brand. Although the hope of reversing the market of DPCA is slim, but there is no hope, we still have to face up to our situation and find out where the real problems lie in order to get better development. at present, PSA Group and Dongfeng Company clearly carry out blood transfusion on DPCA, and DPCA will also invest in products, marketing, services and operations. as for whether Shenlong can achieve self-redemption, the market will give the final result.

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