Citroen to leave Australia after 101 years of operation, unable to withstand competition

Sales of the French brand in Australia have become completely homeopathic in recent years; local management decided that it had no prospects and made the difficult decision to curtail deliveries.

Australian media reported today, citing Citroen Australia CEO David Owen, that the French brand is leaving the market after a thorough analysis of the current competitive environment, an assessment of existing and future Citroen models, and the preferences of Australian buyers of new cars.

From January to July of this year, the Citroen brand sold only 87 cars in Australia (-35.6% compared to the same period last year), and this is despite the discounts announced in July. Australian magazine Drive adds that, compared to the peak sales for Citroen in 2007, demand for cars of this brand has fallen by 94%.

Drive also reports that the first Citroen arrived in Australia in 1923, just four years after the company launched in France. There was local production and big plans, but in the end it all came down to imports, overseen by local company Inchcape, and nine dealers across the country. Citroen currently offers just four models in Australia: the previous-generation C3 hatchback, the C4 and C5 Aircross crossovers, and the Citroen C5 X crossover liftback (shown in the main photo). Local dealers will stop selling new Citroens on November 1 this year, and from then on they will only offer servicing and repairs.

The Peugeot brand is still on the market: its sales in Australia in the first seven months of this year amounted to 1,341 cars (-2.4%). The French brand Renault sold 3,372 cars in Australia during the same period (-33.9%). In general, it is clear that Australians do not like French technology today.

And what do they buy willingly? The leader of the Australian new car market for the first seven months of this year was Toyota, which sold 144,006 cars (+29.2% compared to the same period last year), second place was taken by Ford (57,371 units, +26.7%), third place by Mazda (57,023 units, +2.9%), fourth place by Kia (47,920 units, +5.8%), and fifth place by Mitsubishi (45,352 units, +29.6%).

The top five most popular models for the same period are as follows: Ford Ranger (35,230 units sold), Toyota RAV4 (31,338 units), Toyota Hilux (29,105 units), Mitsubishi Outlander (16,553 units), Toyota Corolla (15,867 units).

We should add that The Citroen brand is also among the outsiders in such large markets as China and India today, but it has no plans to leave these countries yet.