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On July 27th, Dongfeng Peugeot's new 408 was officially pre-sold. The new car will launch three models with a pre-price range of 10.57-121700 yuan. As Dongfeng Peugeot's first model with the new lion logo, the success of the new 408 will determine the future development trend of the Peugeot brand in the Chinese market.

From the official view, the new Peugeot 408 continues the overseas Peugeot 308 "Lion Soul Aesthetics" styling design, the front face is replaced with the latest family-oriented radial lattice front grille, which is more varied and more aggressive than the current models on sale. In addition, the tusk LED daytime driving lights extend to the lower air intake, combined with long and narrow LED far and near lights to bring fierce visual effects. At the same time, the front enclosure of the new car also uses a flying wing-style heat dissipation opening design, and forms an "X" shape with the front grille, the new lion logo LOGO in the middle of the front is particularly conspicuous, and there is a "408" logo above the hood.

On the side of the body, the overall outline of the new car has not changed much, the waistline of the body is relatively straight, the front door runs diagonally up to the rear, the overall design is smooth and dynamic, the decorative strips of doors and windows embellished with chrome elements and the B-column design of similar piano paint material, improve the quality of the whole car. In the rear part, the taillight group is connected by a black decorative panel to form a penetrating design, while the interior of the taillight is modeled by a 3D light group called "Lion claw LED", and the sports atmosphere of the new car is well displayed through the smoked design. In terms of size, the length, width and height of the new car are 4750/1820/1488mm, the wheelbase is 2730mm, and the positioning compact car is the same as the current model on sale.

In the interior part, the new car will adopt the latest family design style, the layout of the functional area will be redesigned, the physical keys with full metal texture will be retained below, the "T" shaped center console is equipped with a 12-inch full LCD dashboard with a double-spoke multi-function flat-bottomed sports steering wheel, and the 10-inch central control multimedia display uses an embedded design, equipped with Dongfeng Peugeot Blue-i 3.0 intelligent Internet connection system. In addition, the double D steering wheel with suspended central control screen design, the sense of movement and technology compared with the current model has been improved.

In terms of power, the new car cancels the 1.2T three-cylinder engine, all equipped with 1.6T turbocharged engine, the maximum power 125kw, the maximum torque 250N ·m. The transmission system is equipped with Aixin 6-speed manual self-integrated gearbox. As a reference, the models on sale are equipped with 1.2T three-cylinder turbocharged engine and 1.6t four-cylinder turbocharged engine, with maximum power of 100kw and 125kw, peak torque of 230N ·m and 250N ·m respectively, matched with 6-speed double-clutch gearbox and 6-speed manual integrated gearbox.

In May 1992, Citroen Automobile Co., Ltd. was established, which was jointly funded by Dongfeng Automobile Group and French Mark Citroen Group with a share ratio of 50:50, and successively put into production of Citroen brands such as Fukang and Elysee. In October 2002, Dongfeng Motor Group and French logo Citroen signed a joint venture contract to expand cooperation, which introduced the Peugeot brand into the Chinese market, thus Dongfeng Peugeot was born. According to the official website, the models currently on sale include the new Peugeot 4008, the new Peugeot 5008, the Peugeot 508L and the Peugeot 2008 THE ONE. Data show that in the first half of the year, Peugeot 4008 retail 7597 vehicles, Peugeot 408 retail 6452 vehicles, Peugeot 2008 retail 5268 vehicles.

Data show that Peugeot 408 was officially launched in January 2010. it was the first global model launched by Peugeot in the Chinese market. at that time, it was all-powerful in the compact car market with the wheelbase of 4680mm, driver and 2710mm, meeting the needs of domestic consumers with large space. After listing, monthly sales basically stabilized at more than 5000 units. In August 2014, the second-generation Peugeot 408 officially launched, the new car is based on Peugeot's latest EMP2 modular platform to build the first model, and further lengthened for the body size. However, from the perspective of this generation of models, Peugeot 408 added a 1.2T three-cylinder engine, which is also one of the first models in China to use a three-cylinder engine. In August 2018, the new Peugeot 408 launched, the new car mainly for the appearance of adjustments, power continues to provide 1.2T and 1.6T power options, the price range is 11.97-169700 yuan.

Since its establishment in 2002, Dongfeng Peugeot has gone through 20 years, but the current market performance is not good. Data show that Dongfeng Peugeot sold 28131 vehicles in the first half of 2022, up 7.08 per cent from a year earlier. At present, Dongfeng Peugeot lacks popular style products, and the new 408 has become the product of Dongfeng Peugeot to burn its bridges.

In terms of product performance, the performance of the new Peugeot 408 is OK, but it is not easy to get market recognition because it is particularly competitive in the compact car market. From the point of view of competitive products, the new 408 will compete with Toyota Corolla / Leiling, Ford focus, Honda Civic and other models, these joint venture models occupy a large number of markets, Geely Xingrui, Changan UNI-V, Chuanqi Shadow Leopard and other models, these independent models have higher functional configuration. For the new 408, in the case of falling prices, cancel the 1.2T three-cylinder version, all the standard 1.6T engine. From this point of view, the advantage of the new 408 lies in price and size, but Dongfeng Peugeot still needs to work hard to compete with mainstream joint ventures and independent brands in brand and configuration.

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