Citroen leaving Australia after greater than 100 years, importer specializing in Peugeot

French automotive model Citroen will quickly depart native showrooms, because the model’s native distributor turns its consideration to its extra profitable sibling, Peugeot.

Inchcape Australia right this moment introduced it’ll shut orders on new Citroen fashions by November 1, 2024.

As soon as it fulfils all orders, it would transition to a service-only operation throughout its 35 current service centres.

All Citroen orders positioned by Australian clients previous to November 1 will embody the model’s five-year, unlimited-kilometre guarantee, capped-price servicing and repair plans. 

“While we acknowledge and have fun Citroen’s wealthy historical past within the Australian market, we should look to the longer term and think about the quickly evolving, dynamic, and aggressive nature of the trade and native market, alongside altering shopper calls for,” mentioned David Owen, Citroen Australia basic supervisor. 

“The choice for Citroen Australia to stop new car gross sales was not made calmly; it was made after cautious consideration of the present and future product accessible for our nation, within the context of the native market and the preferences and necessities of Australian new car consumers.

“Our dedication to placing our clients on the centre of every part we do stays resolute.

“We all know there’ll proceed to be Citroen homeowners in Australia, with many Citroen autos nonetheless on the highway, and our passionate Citroen Australia staff and retailer community are dedicated to supporting the continued car upkeep wants of our clients.”

Presently, Citroen sells simply 4 fashions in Australia: the C3 hatchback, C4 high-riding hatch, C5 Aircross SUV and C5 X lifted wagon.

The Citroen C5 X’s plug-in hybrid variant, due in Australia later this yr, would be the model’s ultimate new car to reach in native showrooms.

The choice comes amid a gross sales droop for the model, having fallen from a excessive of 3803 annual deliveries in 2007 to 175 in 2021.

Although Citroen’s fortunes improved barely throughout the final two years, recording 228 deliveries in 2023, its year-to-date determine of 87 registrations between January and July is down 35.6 per cent on the identical interval final yr.

Citroen’s woeful gross sales outcomes place it solely forward of high-end manufacturers McLaren and Rolls-Royce in Australia, and the model is being outsold by Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari and Lotus.

Its departure will mark the tip of a 100-plus yr run in Australia, after it signed its first official take care of an area importer in 1923.

The Citroen 5CV was the model’s first car to reach in Australia, starting a run for the model which holds the longest steady presence of any carmaker on the native market.

Whereas now-sibling model Peugeot was right here earlier, it has departed and returned to Australia’s new automotive market a number of occasions.

Peugeot has additionally been way more profitable lately, notching up 2516 deliveries in 2023 and registering 1341 new automobiles regionally thus far this yr, nearly as many automobiles as Citroen has offered cumulatively since 2019.

Citroen can be the second model run by automotive conglomerate Stellantis to depart Australia in three years, following Chrysler shutting up store regionally in late 2021.

Citroen gross sales in Australia

Supply: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) VFACTS annual reviews

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