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When it comes to DPCA, most of the older generation know that it used to be the top-selling French car in China, but now DPCA is becoming a representative of declining sales of French cars in China. Recently, DPCA held a business work meeting in 2019, which identified three main business objectives in 2019: selling 235000 vehicles, ensuring positive profits and double points compliance.

It is understood that the sales target of 235000 vehicles set in 2019 is the lowest target for DPCA over the years. After DPCA created a sales volume of more than 4 million in China in 2014, it set an annual sales target of millions to accelerate the development of the group, but this is the beginning of DPCA's stepping off the altar of French cars.

Take the completion of the DPCA sales target for the two years from 2017 to 2018. At the beginning of 2017, DPCA plans to sell 700000 vehicles annually in China, but the actual annual sales volume in China is only 378000 vehicles, only achieving the sales target of about 50%. The annual sales target of 476000 vehicles in China was set in 2018, and the actual cumulative sales for the whole year was 253400, down 31.88% from the same period last year, and suffered another annual decline after 2017.

Since its glory in 2014, DPCA is going downhill, especially in 2017 and 2018. First, there are rumors of "selling the factory", followed by frequent complaints and recalls of products, rumors of dealers withdrawing from the network, and so on. Although the Dragon Group has repeatedly carried out internal and high-level personnel changes, but to no avail.

Some people in the industry have analyzed the continuous decline in sales of DPCA in recent years, pointing out that DPCA's current recession is caused by its downsizing and quality problems, slow market response and repeated personnel adjustments at the top.

First of all, there are downsizing and quality issues. Perhaps one of the most profound things for French car consumers in 2018 is that Citroen 2018 has implemented a "no price reduction" strategy for a number of models, including Peugeot 4008 and Peugeot 301, including Peugeot 308, Peugeot 3008, Citroen C4L and Citroen Elysee, without withdrawing models that satisfy consumers. And the quality of the models cannot be guaranteed. From 2017 to 2019, Citroen recalled six models, mostly due to problems with fuel tanks and other key parts, with a total of 21854 vehicles recalled, of which Dongfeng Peugeot 5008 and Citroen C4 are the main models. According to the statistics of the car quality Network, the Citroen C4 ranks among the top five in the list of complaints of all major models in 2018 with more than 1500 complaints.

Secondly, the market response of Shenlong Group is slow. When the major automakers catered to the domestic SUV trend to launch relevant models, such as Volkswagen launched Tuguan, Audi launched Q7 models, etc., DPCG still indulged in the French romance when sales were brilliant in the past. When the heat of the domestic MPV market overtook the SUV market, DPCA delayed to launch one or two models.

Thirdly, the internal high-level personnel are transferred frequently. Here are the examples of Su Weibin, the former general manager of that Dragon Automobile, and the general manager of the brand department of Dongfeng Peugeot. It is understood that in December 2018, the former general manager of the Dragon Group was transferred, but the new person in charge will only take office before February 1, 2019. The Frenchman McCoran is in charge of it for the time being. Wu Shaoge left the Deputy General Manager of Dongfeng Peugeot Brand Department in just over ten days. In September 2018, the position of General Manager of Dongfeng Peugeot Brand Department will be taken over by Li Guangtao, Minister of Dealer Development of Dongfeng Qichen. Thus it can be seen that the internal managers of the Dragon Group are transferred frequently.

Achieving the annual sales target of 235000 may still be a problem for the current Dragon Group. If the Dragon Group does not work hard on the enterprise management mechanism, the annual sales target of 235000 may once again become an "imaginary number".

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