French Carmaker PSA’s China Sales Continue Free Fall

What’s new: France’s Groupe PSA reported a continued plunge in China sales, reflecting the French carmaker’s struggles worsened by the pandemic in the world’s largest auto market.

Third-quarter sales in China for PSA, the owner of Peugeot, dropped 67.9% year-on-ear to 8,827 units, the company said Wednesday. For the first nine months, the company’s sales in China declined 64% to 31,000 vehicles.

The China market represents PSA’s biggest sales drop globally. The company reported 1.2% growth of its third-quarter global sales.

What’s the context: The weakening sales of PSA reflect the French carmaker’s plight in China amid heating competition from Japanese and German rivals amid an overall market slowdown. The share of French brands in China dropped from 0.7% in 2019 to 0.3%, data from an industry association showed.

PSA operates one joint venture in China, selling Peugeot and Citroën models, after exiting from another venture last year. Sales of the remaining venture with Dongfeng Motor Corp. plummeted to 110,000 units in 2019 from a peak of 700,000 in 2015.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. To read the full story in Chinese, click here.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).

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