Citroen hopes its dealers can put the "very difficult" trading of 2025 behind them and focus on winning back customers this year with a strong portfolio of new cars.
Delayed product launches and challenges such as the Takata airbag recall campaign hampered Citroen dealers' ability to make profit last year and Citroen UK managing director Greg Taylor has told Automotive Management that one of his three priorities is ensuring their earnings improve "exponentially" in 2026.
Linked to that, the other two priorities are increasing brand awareness and regaining a bigger slice of the new car market – Citroen's market share slumped to just 1.03% in 2025 and Taylor said: "That's not where Citroen historically is. It's not where Citroen needs to be, so there's a big push there."
He said some of Citroen UK's commercial policies and campaigns have been revised to ensuring earning opportunities are better, and it has established some good renewal campaigns with its captive finance house Stellantis Financial Services to support retention of existing Citroen customers.
A major marketing campaign, including TV exposure for the e-C5 Aircross SUV and a TikTok takeover, began at Christmas and will continue into February.
It is also hoping for positive brand exposure from joining the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, a move which global CEO Xavier Chardon described as demonstrating "strong, forward-looking values" through "an electric, innovative and passionate adventure that embodies our vision for the mobility of tomorrow". Citroen Racing secured its first Formula E victory in Mexico at the weekend.
On the prospects for the UK, Taylor said: "We've put a lot of money into quarter one to kick off." Citroen franchisees and general managers were briefed on the 2026 plan at the Stellantis Annual Business Meeting last week.
"We've got the product now so we should put it in front of as many people that would have historically considered Citroen but who've drifted aware over the past four or five years.
"Now there's a real reason to come back and engage."
The 2026 range expansion includes the e-C3 Aircross B-segment SUV, e-C3 van, e-C5 Aircross plus the Citroen Holidays campervan.
Citroen is facing tough competitition from new entrant brands, such as Omoda, which have drawn away customers, and franchisees in some cases.
It has also endured a huge recall campaign related to faulty airbags fitted to thousands of its cars worldwide, which led to immense efforts by its dealer partners to get their customers mobile as quickly as possible.
The growing competition in the UK new car market is one aspect which Citroen's brand activity is aimed to counter.
Taylor said the Citroen brand and its existing dealer network are its strengths and these must be emphasised to potential customers, and its core range of new cars and vans offers them choice but also simplicity and consistency – being easy to deal with is a brand value for Citroen.
In 2024 it announced a new pricing and trim level strategy aimed to help customers understand its product range.
Automotive Management is now accepting entries for the 2026 AM Awards, the most presigious event in UK motor retail's calendar.
The full list of categories, and the online entry system, is available here.
The entry system closes in January. AM Awards judges will select the finalists and winners ahead of the gala dinner on May 14, 2026, at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel in London.
Tim Rose is an award-winning automotive business journalist and editor, with more than two decades of experience in reporting about the motor retail industry. He has qualifications accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and the National Council for the Training of Journalist (NCTJ).
Tim has been with Automotive Management and AM-online since 2004. He has been its editor since 2016, since when it won the Automotive Business Publication of the Year Award in 2020 from Newspress and the Bauer Media Scoop of the Year Award in 2019.
A specialist on the UK's automotive industry, he has appeared on BBC News and BBC radio commenting on new car sales, marketing initiatives such as scrappage and electric car grants, and on the UK's transition to electric vehicles. He has also shared his expertise on stage at conferences for dealer groups, for Autotrader and for Google, and spent two years as guest motoring expert with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
He heads Automotive Management's editorial team and its journalism output, and hosts the annual AM Awards for the UK automotive retail industry and the AM100 Dinner at which the UK's 100 largest franchised car dealer groups are revealed.
Tim has been a judge of the UK Car of the Year Awards, the Inspiring Automotive Women Awards and the Institute of the Motor Industry Awards, as well as the AM Awards.
A graduate of Goldsmiths College, University of London, he began his journalism career in local newspapers in the late 1990s but was passionate about cars and motoring so joined Max Power magazine in 2001 as a gateway to specialising in automotive journalism, moving to Automotive Management three years later.
Despite having fond memories from driving petrolheads' dream cars from the Audi R8 V10, Porsche 911 and Maserati MC20 to the Ford Focus RS, Mitsubish Evo VIII and Vauxhall VXR220, Tim is a strong advocate of electric cars (and has not had even oe public charging nightmare experience yet), but he also accepts that currently EVs will not suit everyone.
Ambitious Chinese car brand Omoda is set to launch within weeks and its management team is already setting sales expectations that would overtake established brands Citroen, Mazda, Dacia and Seat by just its second year.
Howards Motor Group continues to expand its portfolio of car dealerships in the West Country, opening its second Vauxhall showroom in under 12 months and adding a third Citroen outlet.
Citroen has appointed Xavier Chardon as its new chief executive to lead the brand’s operations as of June 2.
The Citroen e-C5 Aircross Long Range has become the third model to qualify for the Government’s top-tier electric car grant of £3,750.
Thousands of consumers are expected to see the latest cars from the likes of Peugeot, Fiat, Vauxhall and DS at a special event organised by Stellantis UK this weekend.
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Automotive Management magazine: Newspress Awards’ Automotive Business Publication of the Year 2020
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