Citroen is here to stay.

That’s the message from the head of the French brand in the India-Pacific region, Emmanuel Delay. In Australia for the launch of the Peugeot 5008 recently, Delay reaffirmed parent company PSA Group’s faith in the brand locally, despite recording only 735 sales in 2017 which was a 23 per cent drop from the previous year.

Delay ruled out leaving the market but conceded PSA and new Citroen distributors, Inchcape, are reviewing the business plan for the brand.

“Exactly how we’re going to sell Citroen in the future is still being reviewed between us and Inchcape,” Delay said.

In the short-term the company has locked in the launch of the C3 small car and C3 Aircross city SUV in 2018. The mid-size C5 Aircross SUV is also set for local showrooms, although timing has been confirmed.

“I think Citroen has done a lot of work on rebuilding the brand story in the last few years,” said Delay.

“The good news is the Australian market is not a market that requires very difficult specifications for us to meet. If we look at our global line-up we don’t have to say ‘we have to make a difficult choice and only choose one or two models because it’s expensive to homologate the cars for Australia’ - that’s not the case.

“That will not be a hurdle for us, the line-up will be chosen based on the merit of each model and what it means for a portfolio of models for Australia. I think the line-up is reasonable for Australia, or the future line-up of Citroen is reasonable. It’s not as profuse as Peugeot but it’s still enough.

“The business model of the Citroen brand in Australia with Inchcape is now under review. What I mean by that is, yes we realise the overall volume and the car park is a fraction of Peugeot.”

Delay also spoke about the future of the DS luxury brand in Australia. Both PSA and Inchcape are examining the possibility of bringing DS back down under during 2018, however Delay revealed there are no official plans in place. He confirmed that DS is not included in Inchcape’s current Peugeot and Citroen deal.

“We didn’t want to force it into the deal,” he said.

The new DS 7 Crossback SUV would likely be the spearhead of any potential revival for the brand. The BMW X3-rivalling SUV has recently launched in Europe and other global markets for the brand and is the first of three planned new SUVs for DS.

Inchcape has also confirmed the introduction of a five-year warranty for all new Peugeot and Citroen models. The coverage applies to all 2018 models, even those already sold in January, and also includes roadside assistance for the same period.

“From design to engineering and manufacture, efforts at all levels of the business have focused on quality, durability and reliability – and this new five-year warranty underscores our confidence in the new-generation of Peugeot and Citroën product,” explained Peugeot Citroen Australia managing director, Anouk Poelmann.

• For more information, visit our Citroen showroom.