Sales at Dongfeng-PSA venture advance 24% in first half

Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co. sold 343,170 vehicles in the first half of this year, up 24 percent year-on-year.The growth rate was significantly higher than the 11 percent sales growth of the overall light vehicle market in China during the same period.Dongfeng Peugeot is a joint venture between PSA and Dongfeng Motor Corp.The partnership's sales growth was mainly driven by the Peugeot brand. In the first six months, Peugeot sales surged 31 percent from a year earlier to 183,632 units, while Citroen sales rose 16 percent to 159,538 units.The Citroen C-Quatre was the joint venture's top-selling model in the first half with sales reaching 47,016 units. It was followed by the Peugeot 308 with 44,206 units sold in the same period.Dongfeng Peugeot, headquartered in the central China city of Wuhan, has targeted sales of 700,000 vehicles this year, up from last year's 550,000 units. It plans to increase the number of dealerships in China to 950 by the end of this year, up from 878 in June.The joint venture, which now runs three plants in Wuhan, announced last month that it will start construction of a new assembly plant later this year in the southwest China city of Chengdu.PSA also owns a joint venture with China's Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. That partnership produces vehicles for the premium car brand DS in the south China city of Shenzhen.The French automaker's partnership with Changan began production in the second half of 2013 and sold 9,777 DS5 units in the first half of this year.

Sales at Dongfeng-PSA venture advance 24% in first half

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