Produced by: TanKeChuXing

Art Design: Qianqian

Reviewed by: Songwen

Chen Lin (pseudonym), who has worked in Dongfeng Citroen dealerships for two years, has ultimately succumbed to pressure and switched to the current hot new car manufacturing forces.

"Times have changed," Chen Lin lamented. Once a popular representative of French car brands, it is now being "abandoned" in the era of new energy vehicles, relying only on price cuts to survive, and cutting prices again and again.

As a salesperson, Chen Lin's experience at the terminal is the most genuine. "Models priced around 100,000 yuan, with a discount of 30,000 yuan, still no one buys." Chen Lin said that although Citroen has slashed prices significantly, most people are just watching, and few are actually buying cars.

The more "comfortable" the price cuts were once, the more miserable the "fall" is now. This saying aptly describes Dongfeng Citroen's current situation.

Lagging behind in the new energy era, Dongfeng Citroen has seen price cuts as the only feedback to market changes. As early as March 2023, Dongfeng Citroen kicked off the "first shot" of the entire market price war for that year with the price reduction of its Dongfeng Citroen C6.

From obscurity to almost household names, Dongfeng Citroen, with a maximum discount of up to 90,000 yuan, let the market feel the brand's determination to survive by reducing prices.

"I didn't care about Citroen at 210,000 yuan, but I queued up in the middle of the night for Citroen at 120,000 yuan." Large price cuts, fueled by social media hype, sparked massive attention, and a large number of netizens flocked to Dongfeng Citroen's offline stores and live streaming rooms.

However, behind the cheers, most people are just watching.

Throughout 2023, Dongfeng Citroen's two major brands, Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot, both achieved significant discounts but still couldn't escape the situation of declining sales. Data shows that Dongfeng Citroen's annual sales in 2023 were 80,300 vehicles, down 35.81% year-on-year.

According to TanKeChuXing, Dongfeng Citroen, which once had four factories nationwide during its peak, has been divided up under sales pressure, and now only one factory remains.

How long can Dongfeng Citroen persist under the increasing pressure of survival?

1. Unsustainable Bottom Price

The awkward situation of traditional joint venture brands can be seen from Dongfeng Citroen's frequency of price cuts. Price cuts seem to be Dongfeng Citroen's only "magic weapon".

Since the beginning of 2024 alone, Dongfeng Citroen has embarked on round after round of price reduction activities.

On February 14th this year, leveraging Valentine's Day and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, Dongfeng Citroen announced that existing customers of Dongfeng Citroen and Dongfeng Peugeot could enjoy a maximum subsidy benefit of 85,000 yuan.

Although the significant price cut of 85,000 yuan is quite "impressive," a closer look at its specific implementation rules reveals many restrictions. The C5X from Dongfeng Citroen and the 408X from Dongfeng Peugeot are the participating models, and the preferential policy is targeted at existing French car owners. A car with a one-year-old car can be worth 3,000 yuan,