Citroen not leaving Australia: It's official

Citroen Australia says the French brand will not be abandoning Australia despite declining sales and a shrinking model line-up.

Speaking at the launch of the new C5 Aircross SUV, Citroen Australia communications boss Tyson Bowen told CarsGuide Australians need not be concerned that the manufacturer will give up selling its cars here.

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“Do people have to worry that we’re going anywhere? No – we’re building La Maison,” Bowen said.

La Maison (or one’s home) refers to the local rebranding of dealerships with Citroen and Peugeot separated into two distinct areas within the one facility.

The first Citroen La Maison has already opened at Peugeot Citroen Parramatta in Western Sydney.

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With the C4 Cactus, C4 Grand Picasso and Berlingo van no longer on sale in Australia only three models remain in the Citroen range – the C3 hatch, C3 Aircross and the new C5 Aircross.

This smaller line-up is all part of the plan according to Citroen's general manager of marketing,  Kate Gillis and she assured Australians Citroen isn’t leaving.

“We wouldn’t be here if that was the case,” she said referring to the C5 Aircross launch.

“We need to be realistic about where we are and start to grow from there. It’s fraught with danger if we start to go too broad too quickly which would end up with a brand that’s not sustainable for the future,” she said.

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"We need to start building that ground swell of customer interest that we currently don’t have but we have a whole heap of great familiarity with the brand, so we need to start to bring that back to life.”

This year Citroen has sold 221 cars with the Berlingo and Cactus accounting for more the 50 per cent of those sales. Compared to 2018 year-to-date sales for Citroen in Australia are down by 7.1 per cent.