Citroen sales accelerate as profit more than doubles

Sales at the UK arm of Citroen accelerated by almost £200m in 2023 as its profit more than doubled, it has been revealed.

The Coventry-headquartered car maker has reported a revenue of £1.2bn for its latest financial year, up from the £1.01bn it achieved in 2022.

Newly-filed accounts with Companies House also show its pre-tax profit jumped from £16.1m to £33.4m over the same period.

In the year, Citroen sold 30,931 new cars, a 8.7 per cent but its market share fell from 1.76 per cent to 1.63 per cent.

Its commercial vehicle volume increased by 38 per cent to 27,382 while its market share rose from 6.87 per cent to 7.85 per cent.

Combined, Citroen’s market share increased from 2.54 per cent to 2.59 per cent.

Citroen said its new car performance will be boosted by new models in 2023 including the C3 and C3 Aircross.

A statement signed off by the board said: “The company continued to reinforce its strategy of reducing operating costs in 2023 both in order to remain competitive and also as part of its response to the challenges arising from constrained component supply limiting production volumes available to sell.”

Citroen joins Vauxhall in sales surge

The results come after fellow Stellantis-owned brand Vauxhall shed hundreds of jobs in 2023 as its sales accelerated by more than £300m.

Vauxhall reported a turnover of £2.63bn for its latest financial year, up from the £2.29bn it achieved in 2022.

Its pre-tax profit also increased from £67.3m to £84.3m over the same period.

The rise in Vauxhall’s sales and profit comes as the average number of people employed by the firm in 2023 fell from 1,488 to 1,283.

Vauxhall is headquartered in Coventry and has its main manufacturing base in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.