IT HAS been a tricky decade for Peugeot and Citroen in Australia, with gross sales respectively plummeting 59 per cent and 83 per cent throughout that point and salt rubbed into the wound by Spanish newcomer Cupra, which to date this 12 months is outselling each French manufacturers mixed.
With simply 4 fashions on the Australian market, Cupra’s 2109 deliveries year-to-date outstrip the mixed whole of Citroen’s 164 models – divided between 4 fashions – and Peugeot’s 1649 gross sales – throughout six passenger and three business choices – by greater than 16 per cent.
Quasi-European electric-only model Polestar, with only one mannequin available on the market, can also be forward of Peugeot by 29 models 12 months up to now. Each Cupra and Polestar solely launched in Australia final 12 months and each have taken a digital-first method to gross sales relatively than the normal dealership mannequin.
In opposition to these upstart manufacturers, it appears provenance counts for little or no amongst Australian consumers, for whom model recognition for each Peugeot and Citroen is low, probably because of each manufacturers having been variously represented right here by three totally different impartial importers – Ateco, Sime Darby and now Inchcape Australasia – previously 10 years.
That is regardless of Citroen having the longest continuous presence of any automobile model in Australia – the primary mannequin was privately imported 100 years in the past – and Peugeot proving its price Down Underneath with victory within the 1953 Redex Spherical-Australia Trial adopted by a win on the 1956 Ampol Trial.
Homologating and advertising 13 totally different fashions throughout two manufacturers in Australia represents a big overhead for Inchcape, particularly in comparison with its different automobile model Subaru which has notched up virtually 31,000 gross sales YTD throughout simply six fashions (not together with the outgoing XV small SUV that was changed by the Crosstrek in Could).
Regardless of this, Inchcape executives on the latest e-2008 electrical small SUV launch in Sydney had been emphatic that representing the 2 French manufacturers remained worthwhile for the importer.
They agreed that the willingness of Australians to embrace new or lesser-known manufacturers in pursuit of electrified choices – three of Cupra’s 4 fashions can be found as a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) or are a devoted battery electrical automobile (BEV) whereas Polestar is BEV-only – introduced a chance for Peugeot and Citroen.
Peugeot Citroen Australia managing director Kate Gillis informed GoAuto the phenomenon of those profitable new manufacturers was associated to “the disruptive nature of what electrification is on this market of people who find themselves making an attempt to know and do their very own analysis and discovery to find out what’s the best option”.
In addition to the lately launched Peugeot e-Accomplice small electrical van and this month’s arrival of the e-2008, the model will subsequent 12 months add the e-Knowledgeable medium electrical van and e-208 electrical gentle hatchback.
Peugeot started introducing PHEVs final 12 months with the 3008 medium SUV and 508 mid-size passenger automobile – the latter line-up lately made PHEV-only with the addition of electrification to the wagon variant – and the arrival of a PHEV flagship for the 308 small hatch in March might be complemented by the PHEV-only 408 crossover in 2024.
From Citroen, the C5 X PHEV has simply made its Australian public debut forward of preliminary deliveries within the first half of 2024, whereas Inchcape reps coyly recommended extra electrified Citroens may very well be within the pipeline.
Among the many selections at present out there abroad, the C4 crossover is obtainable with the identical electrical drivetrain because the e-2008 for instance, though Ms Gillis did suggest that extra electrical automobiles are in improvement globally for potential launch in Australia.
Ms Gillis agreed that constructing a better electrified automobile providing will support Peugeot in constructing model recognition, consciousness, and a stronger presence within the Australian market.
Inchcape Australia nationwide company affairs and public relations supervisor Chloe Fraser added that Peugeot’s responsiveness to shoppers by bringing electrified choices to market had been positively acquired.
Requested whether or not something may very well be learnt from the success of manufacturers like Cupra and Polestar which have swept in and outsold Peugeot and Citroen, each Ms Gillis and Ms Fraser mentioned they might be very a lot staying of their lane.
“If we had been to do one thing totally different to what we’re doing now – and what we’re doing could be very a lot specializing in our prospects each new and retained – then it would not be genuine as a model,” defined Ms Gillis.
“I am not going to look over the fence and go, ‘we should always have carried out that’. What we have carried out has been based mostly on how we deliver this model to market to fulfill the wants of our prospects.”
Ms Fraser added that neither Peugeot nor Citroen ever “aspired to be mass-market manufacturers” in Australia, pointing to the massive variety of makes and fashions out there right here and that “not everybody may be within the prime 10”.
“There’ll all the time be a Peugeot and Citroen buyer in Australia and that’s what we’re right here to do – to serve them.”
