AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/10 Report--

French car companies, represented by PSA Group, have experienced a big setback in the Chinese market. Peugeot, Citroen and DS are having a hard time. What will happen to Renault, another French car company? The latest April sales figures show that Dongfeng Renault sold only 547 new cars, down 59.3 per cent from the previous month and 91.6 per cent from a year earlier. Only 6390 new cars were sold from January to April this year, down 76.7 per cent from 27387 in the same period last year.

The sales of PSA Group and Renault in China are getting lower and lower, which precisely confirms the current situation of French cars in the Chinese market.

Dongfeng Renault, founded in December 2013, is a joint venture vehicle production enterprise established by Dongfeng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. and France Renault according to 50:50 equity proportion on the basis of restructuring Sanjiang Renault Automobile Co., Ltd. Dongfeng Renault vehicle plant, located in Wuhan, is currently in production of only two SUV models that went on sale in 2016, namely Coreja and Coreao. Familiar netizens know that the two domestic SUV of Dongfeng Renault and Dongfeng Nissan are inextricably linked.

Since the launch of domestic models, Dongfeng Renault has had the opportunity to develop rapidly, with sales reaching 36525 units in 2016 and jumping to 72000 units in 2017, reaching an all-time peak. As car sales in China began to decline and the launch of Renault products was slow, Dongfeng Renault stalled significantly in the second half of 2018, and sales fell to 50, 000 units that year.

Entering 2019, Dongfeng Renault is showing a downward trend. Dongfeng Renault sales fell 66.3% in January from a year earlier, 74.7% in February, 78% in March, and 91.6% in April. From monthly sales of nearly 10,000 units, reduced to more than 500 now, such a large span, Dongfeng Renault is basically a cliff decline.

So far, Dongfeng Renault domestic models are only Correa and Coreao two SUV, the other two imported models face a more niche market.

Due to the continuous decline in sales, Dongfeng Renault dealers are also having a hard time, increasing operating pressure. According to the monthly dealer inventory level report of the China Automobile Circulation Association, the inventory depth of Dongfeng Renault dealers is often more than 2 months, and the inventory pressure is very great.

Therefore, after the rapid expansion of the number of Dongfeng Renault dealers, the news of withdrawing from the network continues to flow out, and even some dealers, due to the great pressure of inventory, once no longer enter the car according to the task set by the manufacturer, but adopt the way of digesting inventory first.

On April 1 this year, Dongfeng Renault formally hired GE Shuwen, who once worked in Audi China, as president of Dongfeng Renault Motor Co., Ltd. and vice president of strategic coordination of Renault Group in China, seeking to reverse the declining performance of the Chinese market.

Some people in the industry believe that: the strength of the brand is not good, the strength of the product is not strong, and only changing the leader is equivalent to "changing the soup without changing the medicine"?

The serious decline in Dongfeng Renault sales is more due to its own problems. Magnify the performance of the entire French brand in the Chinese market, Lenovo's once brilliant performance, who would have expected that today's legal brand will be in such a situation.

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