AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/16 Report--

According to the market share data released by the China Automobile Association in 2021, the market share of Chinese brand passenger cars has increased from 38.42% in 2020 to 44.43%. Both German and Japanese systems have declined to varying degrees, with a market share of 20.6%. At the bottom is the legal system, which accounts for 0.6% of China's passenger car market in 2021 and only 0.3% in 2020, which seems to have hit bottom and rebounded.

With the delisting of Dongfeng Renault, French brands currently rely only on Dongfeng Peugeot and Dongfeng Citroen under DPCA. According to data released by Dongfeng Automobile Group, the wholesale sales of DPCA in 2021 were 100567, up 100.07% from 50267 in 2020, including 14014 in December 2021, up 119.07% from 6397 in the same period in 2020. According to data released by Citroen, global car sales in 2021 were 796868, an increase of 6.98% over the same period last year, of which 41391 were sold in China, an increase of 101.7% over the same period last year, making it the fourth largest car market for Citroen.

According to the official website of Dongfeng Citroen, there are seven products currently on sale under the Citroen brand, including Versailles C5X, Tianyi C5 AIRCROSS, C3-XR, Tianyi C5 AIRCROSS PHEV, C3L, C6, 2022 Tianyi Co-creation Edition. According to the query data of the automotive industry, the highest-selling model of the Citroen brand in 2021 is the Versailles C5X, with cumulative sales of 12140 vehicles, followed by Tianyi C5 AIRCROSS of 10607, C3-XR of 9378, C6 of 7549, and other models of less than 1,000. It should be noted that the Versailles C5X has been on the market for only four months, with 513 sold in September, 1530 in October, 5037 in November and 5060 in December.

On September 23, 2021, the Versailles C5X officially launched four new models with a price range of 14.37-186700. According to the data, the Versailles C5X is based on the CXperience concept car and is a new medium-sized cross-border car under the Dongfeng Citroen brand. The new car will be produced in China and supplied to the global market. In terms of power, the new car is equipped with 1.6T turbocharged engine, maximum power 125kw, peak torque 250N m, matching Aisin 8-speed hand-integrated gearbox.

From the perspective of product power, the pricing of Versailles C5X is still in line with the consumer demand of the market. However, the car also experienced some twists and turns during the period, car reviewer 38 gave different views when evaluating the car, including 1, A + class cars, can not reach the B class; 2, the second row of head space, sufficient legroom, short cushions; 3, the current climate 10 ℃ acceleration 8.8 seconds, brakes 35.5 meters; 4, track results 1.06.4. Large roll, low limit, no sense of movement, no fun to drive; 5, steering has superfluous swing action, slow beat, muddy; 6, chassis comfort evaluation, not crisp enough, aftershock is obvious, high sense is general; 7, variable box uneven, shift impact, taxiing down gear break; 8, the initial stage of the brake is weak, need to brake strength; 9, driving sound insulation is good and high-end feeling 10, fuel consumption current temperature 23 ℃ city 6.7 highway 5.6, quite fuel saving; 11, many functions, but difficult to use, menu design confusion, classification confusion, set logic anti-human, the most difficult to use. Of course, the above views have also aroused the dissatisfaction of many legal fans, questioning the lack of objectivity on the 38th. Since then, the 38th responded to many questions raised by netizens through a long article. In addition, the 38th also exposed the Versailles acceleration jitter problem, that is, its purchase of test vehicles with more than 4000 revolutions of rapid acceleration jitter, failed to communicate with factory personnel for many times.

Versailles C5X is regarded as a turnaround of the Citroen brand, whether it can lead the brand to achieve a turnaround, it is still not clear, but the launch of Versailles C5X does avoid the further fall of the brand. If we only rely on other models, according to the current development of the Chinese market, Tianyi C5 AIRCROSS and other models will have a lower and lower sense of existence in the market, because domestic brands are on the rise, and products such as mainstream German and Japanese brands are updated rapidly. Toyota, for example, launched nearly 10 new cars in China in 2021, including Ling Shang, Asian Lion, fourth-generation Halanda, Crown Lufang, Sena and so on.

DPCA can be said to be the only French car company left in the Chinese market, but the slow pace of product replacement has led to a continuous decline in sales in recent years. In terms of development time, DPCA reached an all-time peak of 700000 vehicles in 2016, and then went all the way down, falling by 15.2%, 36.85%, 32.89%, 55.17% and 55.74% respectively from 2015 to 2020, with sales falling for five consecutive years compared with the same period last year. At the same time, sales have halved for two consecutive years. After more than four years of decline, DPCA currently has only about 350 dealers left, while at its peak there are thousands. Chen Bin, general manager of DPCA, said that in the future development strategy, DPCA will stop expanding its sales network. "instead of blindly developing the network, we will focus on moving forward with these 350 partners." Chen Bin said that the current strategy of DPCA is to improve their profitability by providing strong support to dealers in all aspects. "only when profits increase, will they invest and develop on a rolling basis."

For Dragon, there is still a long way to go to get the company back on the track, and maintaining the stability of dealers is only the first step. In 2019, PSA, a foreign joint venture company of DPCA, issued a new strategy, hoping to achieve the goals of positive cash flow, company profit and sales recovery in six years. However, under the pressure of independent brands and mainstream joint venture brands, the living space of marginal joint venture brands such as Shenlong has been further squeezed, and it is not easy to revive brand image and reputation. It is understood that the annual production capacity of the three major Shenlong factories is more than one million. According to the market level of existing brands, the company's capacity utilization rate will be only 10% in 2021.

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