In the last few years, a few companies had left India, but also there are two companies that took the entry. I mean, Kia from Korea and Citroen from France. If we look closer, there are a lot of similarities between the brands, like, both the brands target middle-class people, they both have great value in the international market, and both are foreign brands for India.
But from the Indian point of view, their similarities end here, but 2019 was the year that Kia Seltos was launched, and even before the launch of this car, 30,000 units were booked, and 1,00,000 units were sold within the first year of its launch. But if we talk about the other foreign brand, I mean, Citroen, they could only sell 6134 units in the year 2022.
This number is so low that in the whole year of 2022, Citroen was at no 14 in terms of sales. And this is happening because people in India are literally not buying Citroen cars. For example, in the flagship ship car of Citroen, that is Citroen C5 Aircross, only 20 to 25 cars are being sold in the whole month. Now you might say, that the Citroen C5 is an expensive car that is why people might not be buying it.
But very recently Citroen has launched its C3 what we are noticing is that it is performing very badly according to its segment. While 10,000 units of cars like Punch and i10 are being sold in a month, only 800 to 900 units of Citroen C3 are being sold, though Citroen has priced it lower than the other cars in this segment.
You might think that Citroen is a new brand in India that's why you cannot expect much from them in terms of sales, and if you think this way, then you need to rethink your logic because India is such a market where the cars that are not even tried and tested could able to secure lakhs of pre-booking units. And Citroen is a hundred-year-old brand.
Then, where is the problem?
Why is Citroen unable to sell their cars in India as to their expectations. Now, there are many answers to this question, like, their choice of a completely wrong segment for their car, or not understanding customers' demands in India or a huge shortage of after-sales touch points. We are going to address all these topics in this article, and also we will try to understand, whether the seven-seater Creta rival SUV that Citroen is about to launch, will that be able to change the company's luck or not.
Let's understand these.
For the first time, Citroen launched their product C5 Aircross in India in 2021, but this was not the first entry of Citroen in India.
Directly or indirectly, Citroen came to India twice before this and failed to continue. Citroen is a century-old French car maker, which was started in 1919 by André Citroen. And in the year 1976, Citroen merged with another French company named Peugeot, and after that, a parent company was developed and named the PSA group. And if we search for the chapter of Citroen in India, then 1995 is the year when Citroen partnered with Premier Group and they launched Peugeot Citroen 309 in India.
But 1998 has become the year when Citroen had to leave India due to labor problems, and poor dealer services. Then again PSA group enters Indian Market in 2011 and establish a plant in Gujarat. But then, Europe takes a financial hit due to the PSA group had to stop their work. But very recently, in 2021, PSA Group is acquired by Stellantis and Stellantis think of launching this subsidiary in the Indian market, because they don't have any company that was serving the Indian masses since the departure of Fiat.
Yes, Jeep is a Stellantis company working here, but you all know how many people buy Jeeps and who could afford to buy that? So, in April 2021 Citroen launches their first car Citroen C5 Aircross in India. C5 Aircross is a compact crossover SUV that comes with a two-liter diesel engine, and this generates 177 Horsepower and 400 newton-meter of torque. And now if we talk about C5 Aircross sales, then April 2022 was the month where this car had its most sales, which means 235 units.
And this was the first and the last time that this car had this many sales, if not, they were unable to sell more than 100 units. In fact, after April 2022, they couldn't even sell 50 units of this car per month. And it's been over two years since this SUV was launched, and within this period in September 2022, its facelift was also launched. Despite all this, they could only sell 2000 units of this.
Now we can understand that C5 Aircross has failed in India in terms of sales. But what were the reasons? the biggest of all reasons is entering the wrong segment. Actually, if you see, Citroen enters India with the wrong product. Because of the segment, they launched their car in cars sales are very low anyway. If we talk about C5 Aircross competitors, it has Volkswagen Tiguan, Hyundai Tucson Skoda Kodiaq, and Jeep Compass, these all fall into this segment.
And if we compare the sales of all these models in March 2023, Hyundai, which is the no. 2 in India in terms of sales, could only sell 581 units of Tucson. 416 units of Kodiaq, 395 units of Compass, and only 132 units of Tiguan were sold.
Now you might ask, why the sales of this segment are too low? Then, the reason for their low sales is their pricing. If you look closely, most models in this segment are priced in the bracket of 30 to 40 lakhs, not all but most of them. And these companies, at this price point, are selling these cars in the name of crossover SUVs.
But, at this price, you can buy the base models of cars like Toyota Fortuner and MG Hector. And we all know, in India, the demand for a good road presence is always more. And If I talk about Fortuner, then this car has taken over the whole market. Its sales are such, that it can be comparable with a hatchback in terms of sales.
This is the reason why only a few are buying Citroen C5. This is because of entering the wrong segment. But there is another reason why these car sales are too low and that is its overpriced nature within its segment too. If you notice, you can see its pricing is more than other cars in the segment, except for Kodiaq.
Now the Citroen C5 is overpriced, but its creature comforts and its luxury aspects are very nice, but, like I already said, people in India have different ideologies when buying a car. So, this is what it is. Well, this is about Citroen's premium car, if we talk about their mass-marketed car then it also is in very bad condition. And the reason for that is judging Indian audiences wrongly.
In September 2022, Citroen launched its C3 in India, and they marketed it as a premium hatchback. Well, like other brands, Citroen should have called it an SUV, but maybe they know not every swollen hatchback is an SUV. Well, in terms of dimensions, it is similar to Suzuki Swift, Baleno, and Tata Altroz, but the wheelbase of C3 is more than Baleno, and due to that it offers decent leg room for the rear seat, which makes it more comfortable.
If we talk about C3's pricing then its base model is sold for the ex-showroom price is 6,16,000 INR in India. But for selling it at such a price point, Citroen made many compromises in features. If I had to tell you in one line, except for the ten-inch display, you won't get any other features in this car, which you can find in other cars of this segment.
In fact, its manual ORVMs and flab door handles are features that were seen in cars 15 years ago. And also, the rear-view camera isn't offered, no rear window wiper, and IRVM is also a basic one. That means, all and all, Citroen has priced it very competitively, but they could not offer an aspirational product at this price, and they have focused more on functionalities over features.
I am not wrong if I say that they still could not understand the Indian audience. As a result, the sales of this car are very low compared to their competition, as I have already told you in my intro. And product portfolio isn't the only reason because of why new brands like Kia, despite it was a new company, still, managed to attain success, but Citroen is struggling in terms of sales.
According to the Chief Sales Officer of India, the key reason for Kia to succeed in India is customer touchpoints, that provide sales and service facilities to Kia buyers all over India. Kia already has 339 touchpoints all over India, being a new brand the number is very high, actually, it's more than a few older brands too.
But if we talk about Citroen, they only have 30 dealers in India. India is so big, brother. And it is the same thing here, if you have a car, you will have to do timely services too, and where will the customer go for services? Well, one more thing, maybe things aren't in Citroen's favor, but they are working on it to make their presence better in India.
So, they are going to strengthen their portfolio for India, and they are going to double their dealer network. Citroen has announced that by August 2023, they are going to have 60 touchpoints in India and their target is to increase them to 100 by 2024. They announced this on 27 April when they introduced their new car, C3 Aircross to the Indian market.
Yes, this is the car that's going to go against Creta. And this is going to offer seven seats as an option, that's going to be the first time in this segment. Now if you ask me what is going to be their future, I believe that Citroen is making the right move in the right segment, and I also believe this can perform better than other Citroen cars in terms of sales. But this can also be seen, that Citroen has applied the same strategy with this car too, I mean, focusing more on functionalities and very less on features. And I have noticed that all the cars in this segment, they offer too many features.
Starting from a good music system, these cars are also offering ventilated seats and Citroen continues to offer a big screen and a small screen. Well, let us see what will happen, but I think if Citroen brings this at a good competitive price then this can really give competition to the cars of its segment. And if you like this article of mine, tell me in the comment section, do you even consider buying Citroen's new C3 Aircross.
Thank you.
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