INCHCAPE To Show Us How To Sell Citroens?

Interesting here, regarding the above questions:

Citroën C4 - The Reinvented Compact Sedan | Citroën Australia

The elegant and versatile Citroën C4 is arriving in 2024. Register your interest today.
www.citroen.com.au www.citroen.com.au

So the C4 is sold out; and it is once again register your interest for people wanting to buy in 2024.

This makes it very apparent that sales aren’t being specifically demand-driven. Obviously they are planning for low sales, only importing a small number of cars, selling them, and then that’s it; make a new plan for another batch.

Low sales figures are low sales figures, there’s no doubt about it that higher sales figures would of course be better.

However, if Citroen are selling all the stock they import, then that presumably means they are happy enough that their highly focussed small-numbers business is working. Presumably they can gauge increased demand via these “register your interests” being sent out; and tailor their next order to a sensible number of customers.

And it also means that when we see a figure like “C4s sold: 3” it doesn’t mean cars are sitting there unsold and that everything is a disaster.
 
For those playing at home, VFACTS for November 2023

Citroen C3 – 5
Citroen C4 – 2
Citroen C5 Aircross – 1
Citroen C5 X – 3
Citroen Total – 11

Peugeot 2008 – 43
Peugeot 3008 – 47
Peugeot 308 – 23
Peugeot 408 – 0
Peugeot 5008 – 50
Peugeot 508 – 3
Peugeot Boxer – 3
Peugeot Expert – 31
Peugeot Partner – 30
Peugeot Total – 230

Renault Arkana – 135
Renault Captur – 27
Renault Kangoo – 0
Renault Koleos – 83
Renault Master – 158
Renault Master Bus – 0
Renault Megane – 4
Renault Megane E-Tech – 0
Renault Trafic – 136
Renault Total – 543
 
December and full year sales (2023)

Citroen C3 – 8 (69)
Citroen C4 – 1 (50)
Citroen C5 Aircross – 4 (41)
Citroen C5 X – 1 (68)
Citroen Total – 13 (228)

Peugeot 2008 – 61 (329)
Peugeot 3008 – 27 (584)
Peugeot 308 – 17 (280)
Peugeot 408 – 1 (5)
Peugeot 5008 – 15 (184)
Peugeot 508 – 6 (156)
Peugeot Boxer – 8 (68)
Peugeot Expert – 18 (358)
Peugeot Partner – 64 (552)
Peugeot Total – 217 (2516)

Renault Arkana – 149 (1572)
Renault Captur – 20 (939)
Renault Kangoo – 0 (18)
Renault Koleos – 88 (2776)
Renault Master – 98 (1351)
Renault Master Bus – 0 (0)
Renault Megane – 2 (69)
Renault Megane E-Tech – 2 (3)
Renault Trafic – 89 (1296)
Renault Total – 448 (8024)
 
Flashback

December 2022 Car Sales:
Citroën C3 1
Citroën C4 7
Citroën C5 Aircross 11
Citroën C5 X 12
Citroën Total 31

Perhaps along with the limited dealers its wrong model mix contributing to the (large) decline?
 
STALLED said:
Lack of brand/product awareness, dealership network being small and pricing.
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Hard to see vehicles that you hide with no advertising and provide, in my case, one dealer for the whole of WA. The only good thing is accelerated depreciation for secondhand buyers like me. I don't understand why they bother or why the parent company puts up with it. Complete waste of time and money.
 
JohnW said:
Hard to see vehicles that you hide with no advertising and provide, in my case, one dealer for the whole of WA. The only good thing is accelerated depreciation for secondhand buyers like me. I don't understand why they bother or why the parent company puts up with it. Complete waste of time and money.
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It's the same with SA, one dealer for the whole state and then when it comes to Citroen, there's no signage at all, it's just Peugeot! At the service centre, because you have to go to the Ford dealership, there's no Peugeot or Citroen signage to see either.
 
iLaguna said:
It's the same with SA, one dealer for the whole state and then when it comes to Citroen, there's no signage at all, it's just Peugeot! At the service centre, because you have to go to the Ford dealership, there's no Peugeot or Citroen signage to see either.
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I just don't understand why they bother.
 
None of the Stellantis reports mention Australia as worthy of a strategic plan. But they still keep a small Peugeot operation probably viable as an offshoot of UK production cars. They did introduce the Dongfeng Citroen presumably to test the water for Chinese sourced cars but pricing was not at a level to encourage sales. At some stage decisions will be made about the Australian market.
 
Russell Hall said:
None of the Stellantis reports mention Australia as worthy of a strategic plan. But they still keep a small Peugeot operation probably viable as an offshoot of UK production cars. They did introduce the Dongfeng Citroen presumably to test the water for Chinese sourced cars but pricing was not at a level to encourage sales. At some stage decisions will be made about the Australian market.
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Maybe if they had put more effort in years ago, they'd be seeing the benefits now. No surprise that we don't rate, when our market continues to be neglected year after year.
 
Geography makes it better sense to source a car for Australia from an Asian partner, like Renault with the Koleos. But Stellantis is weakest in the Asia -Pacific region. The market hasn't been abandoned but could be viewed as being on hold.
 
JohnW said:
I just don't understand why they bother.
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I've wondered if PSA was planning to withdraw from the Australian market when Sime Darby decided to quit as importer, and that perhaps Inchcape made an offer to run a small/limited operation to keep the brands alive.

Although this does not line up with what was said at the time: https://premium.goauto.com.au/inchcape-outlines-peugeot-future/

Who knows! Although it's fair to say that it has been a woeful 6½ years under Inchcape!

Thank God for Continental Cars here in Sydney! Always the jewel in the crown.
 
Russell Hall said:
Geography makes it better sense to source a car for Australia from an Asian partner, like Renault with the Koleos. But Stellantis is weakest in the Asia -Pacific region. The market hasn't been abandoned but could be viewed as being on hold.
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Peugeot's were built in Malaysia for a number of years and still being built there to this day, this was another missed opportunity by PSA to make Malaysia an export hub to other countries like Australia and New Zealand. Now they're building cars in India ......
 
Russell Hall said:
None of the Stellantis reports mention Australia as worthy of a strategic plan. But they still keep a small Peugeot operation probably viable as an offshoot of UK production cars. They did introduce the Dongfeng Citroen presumably to test the water for Chinese sourced cars but pricing was not at a level to encourage sales. At some stage decisions will be made about the Australian market.
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Odd, given the efforts made by the German brands...
 
Tavares has bigger challenges for Stellantis in his sights than Pacific markets. Notably the rising competition with Chinese makers that he sees as a major head to head battle.
Tavares seems to share Musk's view of the major Chinese threat to existing makers.
 
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Took a 408PHEV for a test drive today in Melbourne - they are taking orders for a July (at the earliest) delivery. There is one C5X phev in the country but they have no idea on release to the dealers. They are guessing the C5X will be around $5-10k dearer than the 408. The 408PHEV being around $74-77K drive away.
The C5X feels more comfortable than the 408 at first glance. The 408PHEV very easy to drive without having to learn the foibles of brakes, dynamics etc.
We spent 2 hours in the dealers with 3 sales people and two other customers.
 
About 3 years ago, my wife and I downsized to a smaller house. With less space, and less time to devote to my two classic Citroens (a 2CV and a GS), I decided to pursue a different form of motoring interest and parted with the two classic Citroens and my daily driver Honda CRV to purchase a Mercedes Benz EQA (small, fully electric SUV). Whilst I miss my two Cits (actually three - I sold my DS23 when we moved house), I pursue my Citroen interest through this website and CCSA.

What about the EQA? It has some nice Mercedes features, which I appreciate, but as an EV I find it both enjoyable and fascinating. I still have much to learn about electric vehicles, but the thing I really enjoy is using the shift paddles to alter the level of regenerative braking - through five settings, from severe to non-existent ('coast mode'). I rarely use the friction brakes and of course regeneration re-energises the battery - quite significantly on say the long downhill slope from Crafers into Adelaide. In nearly two years of EV ownership, I've always recharged the battery at home through our 3-phase solar system. Capital cost aside, my energy cost is the 5 cents per kilowatt I use to charge the car battery instead of feeding it into the grid.

I mention the dynamic aspect of EV driving because, as I'm sure those who contemplate the purchase of some form of EV, it's a matter of fully evaluating the pros and cons of each alternative BEFORE committing, rather than after the event - and realising that perhaps another option might have been preferable.

Obviously, the 408PHEV and the C5XPHEV have, respectively, the potential to combine traditional Peugeot and Citroen characteristics, electric energy propulsion and the benefit of (potentially) less range anxiety than I have with a battery-only vehicle. They weren't options when I bought my EQA. I think it's a matter of creating a list of desirable criteria and trying to find the best fit for those which are most important to you. My advice: spend plenty of time doing the research to create the list then spend as much time as you can with the vehicles to evaluate each against those criteria. Not a simple matter, given the rarity of fully committed Peugeot/Citroen dealers in Australia these days. Happy searching!
 
January:

Citroen C3 – 2
Citroen C4 – 0
Citroen C5 Aircross – 3
Citroen C5 X – 2
Citroen Total – 7

Peugeot 2008 – 25
Peugeot 3008 – 25
Peugeot 308 – 8
Peugeot 408 – 19
Peugeot 5008 – 2
Peugeot 508 – 3
Peugeot Boxer – 1
Peugeot Expert – 18
Peugeot Partner – 46
Peugeot Total – 147

Renault Arkana – 55
Renault Captur – 36
Renault Kangoo – 0
Renault Koleos – 121
Renault Master – 112
Renault Megane – 7
Renault Megane E-Tech – 2
Renault Trafic – 78
Renault Total – 411
 
Ouch. I wonder how many Fellow Foggers are buying new Citroëns?
 
I took a test drive in a 408 PHEV last week from Nambour to see what the platform for the PHEV C5X will be like as it has the same engine, gearbox and battery as the C5X. If there is charge in the battery, they turn on in electric mode, and drive in that mode until charge in the battery is low and they automatically change into Hydrid mode. In Hybrid mode the engine runs when accelerating or going up hills and it runs in electric to use up the charge gained from regenerative braking by using the stop/start capacility and it all seems to have a quite smooth changeover. Rather than the DSG like changes that the petrol C5X does, the PHEV gearbox seems to do a more progressive change when running on engine power that is still a lot faster than the early C5X7 AM6 box sloppy interim torque converter changes. The Regenerative Braking comes in when you take your foot right off the accelerator pedal and the strength is quite small to start with and feels like mild engine braking. This strength can be increased by depressing the brake pedal and then seems to be transferred to the operation of the accelerator pedal. I didn't seem to feel the transition from the regenerative braking to disk braking as I came to a stop.

Overall, I was very impressed by the test drive, the 81kW electric engine has plenty of torque to keep up with the traffic even up hills and blends in with engine operation quite seamlessly and when the engine kicks into Hybrid mode. The engine seems to rev more then I remember on the petrol C5X which I like.

As far as I know, Citroen Asutralia has 4 x 2023 Amazonite Grey C5X PHEVs in Sydney that they are using for evaluation and at cycling events. They have tried to order a fleet of PHEV demonstrator cars twice now and have been unsuccessful in getting them built due to demand from customer orders and the latest attempt to get some is scheduled for building in May June 2024, so hopefully there will be some coming in later this year. I didn't get to try the Sports mode. At the end of a drive, the dash displays electric and petrol consumption figures for the drive. I did quite a hilly drive and I think it averaged 16kWH per 100km electric and 1.9l/100km for petrol which seemed fair under the circumstances.

The dealer said he had quite a few people making enquiries about the C5X PHEV who want to be informed once they were availalbe so lets hope we get quite a few of these on the roads in Australia.

Cheers, Ken
 
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