[Venkatesh]

Thierry Koskas the global CEO of Citroën brand and Stellantis Chief Sales and Marketing Officer says

“India can become its second biggest market worldwide”, for the French car brand in the next five years.

Koskas, who first visited the country 18 years ago, says he is amazed at how quickly the Indian market has evolved.

“Now the expectation of Indian customers is higher than European customers in terms of features. So, I think it's a learning (experience) for everyone. The most important thing for us is to answer to these needs. Very soon you will see more features added to the cars.”

“We need to work on brand awareness. Citroen is not well known. We will see concrete initiatives (on brand building) that we will be taking. We have very good word of mouth. But not enough customers to talk about the brand. We will heavily invest in the brand. There will be an ambassador that will represent the brand,” he said.

Source

[pqr]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

“India can become its second biggest market worldwide, for the French car brand in the next five years.”

With mere 404 wholesale in April 2024, Citroen management is the epitome of a daydreamer.

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

“There will be an ambassador that will represent the brand.”

Hiring Dhoni for brand endorsements will not help Citroen India. Remember how Toyota hired Virat Kohli in 2013 for the Etios Liva brand campaign?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwqFgMMpY1E

Etios Liva sales never picked up. Because expensive celebrity endorsements can, at best, familiarize brands with a larger audience base and raise awareness, which will eventually lead to inquiries, footfall, and test drives (KPI of marketing campaign). But then potential buyers will see the final product and will be disappointed because it fails to deliver value in the first place.

What Citroen need is to get the product right first, which requires a larger incremental expenditure. Poor sales would have resulted in negative cash flows, so I'm not sure where they will get money to put in bottomless pit they are into right now!

[Noctis]

Originally Posted by pqr

Attachment 2602658
Poor sales would have resulted in negative cash flows, so I'm not sure where they will get money to put in bottomless pit they are into right now!

While their domestic sales are doing poorly, Stellantis India as a whole is profitable as a manufacturing and export hub. Their JV with TATA manufacturing Nexon is also doing well, making 760 cr net profit in FY2023.

So they do seem to have the financial capacity build up on the domestic market, but based on interviews with their leadership it seems they are not going for volume here.

[neerajku]

Only when they introduce sensibly priced good products. Else, this'll remain a pipe dream. Their India leadership or whoever decides things has been making a mess so far with lousy products at outrageous prices. Learn from Kia, Maruti, Hyundai, it is not so tough for a true MNC.

[Senotrius]

Even Triumph has more service centres than Citroen. Fix that first.

[Aditya]

India could become Citroen's 2nd largest market after France - Posts moved to a new thread.

[ToThePoint]

Koskas, who first visited the country 18 years ago, says he is amazed at how quickly the Indian market has evolved.

“Now the expectation of Indian customers is higher than European customers in terms of features. So, I think it's a learning (experience) for everyone. The most important thing for us is to answer to these needs. Very soon you will see more features added to the cars.”

For me this is the most important item and gives hope - the fact that they acknowledge and are willing to work towards their product shortcomings so far. Hope it happens soon!

[ads11]

Originally Posted by ToThePoint

For me this is the most important item and gives hope - the fact that they acknowledge and are willing to work towards their product shortcomings so far. Hope it happens soon!

This quote makes it seem like the demand for feature rich cars in India is a new thing and that everyone is learning the lesson simultaneously. It clearly isn't, and also clearly others like Kia heeded it well in advance when they entered the market.

Citroen make cars with a distinct character of their own from a brand perspective but this "value engineered" product strategy of theirs is clearly an idea whose time has long gone. They'll persist with that strategy at their own peril.

Claiming it could be their second most important global market is a truly empty boast without substance. It could very well become the major market they exit in a second or so, dismal rate at which they've been going.

All the criticism their Indian management gets is entirely well founded

[TorquePull]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Thierry Koskas the global CEO of Citroën brand and Stellantis Chief Sales and Marketing Officer says

Is he saying that they read the market 18 years ago and launched cars now based on that? C3 literally came with features that was new in cars from 2005 and later.

[padmrajravi]

Off late I see some sense in their decisions compared to last year. Bringing AT to C3 Aircross was a step in the right direction. It now comes with six airbags as well. I think C3 Aircross is their best bet in the current lineup. Improve it further. It still misses out on crucial features like push-button start, climate control etc. They don't need feature parity with Koreans. All they need is to cover the must-have ones in the top-end model. It already has advantages in space and suspension over the Koreans.

[NPV]

Stellantis should walk the talk and show their commitment to the Indian market in action. It’s a good business news making headline in India, but they really need to up the ante with respect to a better, bigger product lineup, balance between thoughtful features and pricing, wider sales and service network. Right now, everything seems fledgling.

[DRPSREDDY]

Originally Posted by Noctis

While their domestic sales are doing poorly, Stellantis India as a whole is profitable as a manufacturing and export hub. Their JV with TATA manufacturing Nexon is also doing well, making 760 cr net profit in FY2023.

So they do seem to have the financial capacity build up on the domestic market, but based on interviews with their leadership it seems they are not going for volume here.

Now with the Nexon assembly shifted to Sanand plant, the plant now just assembles Harrier and Safari from TATA and the JEEP products on sale in India. So now the ball is in Stellantis court to ramp up production of new models and get going to keep the profits ringing. This may include shifting Citroen models to Ranjangaon and leaving the HM-FCA Chennai plant for their next brand PEUGEOT as they plan to roll out more brands. I think Stellantis should also work on Opel as it has a brand recall in India better than Peugeot.

[ajmat]

For this, Stellantis need to :

Build Scale - The HM factory might not be big enough. Stellantis would need to move operations to Pune.

Build Distribution and Service Network - No one will invest until a proper value proposition is presented

Build a Proper Brand - I'm confused - you build an image of French flair and sophistication and release budget products

Very Strategic Product Management - Ensure value and unique features if any.

[samarthnarayan]

Originally Posted by neerajku

Only when they introduce sensibly priced good products else this'll remain a pipe dream. There India leadership or whosever decides things have been making a mess so far with lousy products at outrageous prices. Learn from Kia, Maruti, Hyundai , it is not so tough for a true MNC.

In my view, I think their pricing is still okay.

In fact, the build quality and driving dynamics of the Citroen cars is actually better than Kia-Maruti-Hyundai (KMH).

However, they lag seriously on 2 counts currently:

1) Features, and that's where the KMH trio rule.

2) Dealership and Service Network., this is absolutely critical for any manufacturer wanting to become a mass player in India. Our typical Indian middle class thinking is to be as risk-free as possible, very rightly so, and buying a car without local support is a little too much for most.

So if Citroen is serious, it should invest in a dealership and service network. Or maybe do a JV with some other manufacturers, who are either also facing low volumes (hint. Jeep) and / or looking to re-enter the Indian Market (hint. Ford), for them to come up with a mutually beneficial solution for the Indian market.

Considering the ballooning costs of Real Estate and employee salaries for the end Dealership, I think JVs and out-of-the-box solutions in a hybrid like multi-vendor setup, might not be the worst idea, in a future which is only about to get more competitive.

Also profitability for the end Dealership is critical, otherwise why will any local business owner invest in the franchise of any car manufacturer, so hopefully Citroen has that part figured out.

[samarthnarayan]

Originally Posted by samarthnarayan

So if Citroen is serious, it should invest in a dealership and service network. Or maybe do a JV with some other manufacturers, who are either also facing low volumes (hint. Jeep) and / or looking to re-enter the Indian Market (hint. Ford), for them to come up with a mutually beneficial solution for the Indian market.

Considering the ballooning costs of Real Estate and employee salaries for the end Dealership, I think JVs and out-of-the-box solutions in a hybrid like multi-vendor setup, might not be the worst idea, in a future which is only about to get more competitive.

Also profitability for the end Dealership is critical, otherwise why will any local business owner invest in the franchise of any car manufacturer, so hopefully Citroen has that part figured out.

Adding some data to bolster my point above:

In April 2024, Citroen sold only 400 odd cars (all models) pan India, and Jeep sold only 377 in the whole month.

So How long can end Dealerships survive with these numbers is a million rupees question to me.