Since the arrival of the new team at Citroën France, the brand has been much more aggressive, with exceptional offers that have made the cars more accessible. Although the effect has not yet been seen in terms of registrations, the brand has enjoyed great success in terms of orders during the Open Days, a success which it has repeated and improved on in January 2024.
The brand had set itself an ambitious target for these Open Days, aiming to increase orders by 30% compared to January 2023, and had given itself the means to do so with a unique offer for the C3, available from €89 per month, but above all by opening orders for the new C3 three weeks in advance to take advantage of the immense interest in electric leasing in France.
And the result lives up to the brand's ambitions, as Citroën recorded almost 5,300 orders during the 4 days of the Open Days, almost 1/3 more than the initial target. This shows the great success of the range with individual customers, the most interesting because the most profitable, who have taken up en masse the exceptional offers launched by the brand, ranging from €89 per month for the C3 to discounts of up to €8,000 on the C5 Aircross.
But the biggest surprise, and the one that has completely upset the established order, is the new C3, which has made a thunderous start with over 2,000 orders for these Open Days alone; there is no doubt that the new generation C3 has been the star of this weekend, even if it was not visible in the showrooms. There is no doubt that a good proportion of these orders are due to social leasing from the Government and also to people who had pre-ordered and converted their pre-orders into official orders, but this figure allows us to take stock of the waiting generated by the new C3. Also note the very good performance of the electric C4, also boosted by social leasing, which recorded orders, during these Open Days and since the start of the announcement of social leasing, for almost half of all units sold throughout 2023.
I know that the number of registrations in recent months may have cast doubt on the order figures from previous open days, but it is important to remember that these only relate to individual customers, i.e. only 40 to 45% of the French market. However, this positive information allows us to take stock of the expectations created by the new C3 and the very good start it seems to have made, without any advertising and without having seen it in dealerships, which is not negligible. Tomorrow, 19th January, I'll have the opportunity to interview Sébastien Caron, CEO of Citroën France, who will look back on the year 202 and the prospects for 2024, so if you have any questions, I'm open.