Its French competitor, Renault, also experienced an annus horribilis with sales falling by 21.3%.
PSA didn't save the furniture either, with global sales at half mast: 27.8% in 2020, to 2.5 million vehicles.
A balance sheet weighed down by the health crisis, according to a press release released Thursday by the car manufacturer, about to unite with Fiat Chrysler.
Volumes fell in particular in Europe (-29.7% to 2.1 million), where the group made nearly 85% of its deliveries, and in China (-57.7% to 45,965), the leading market global.
In this region, it has experienced an uninterrupted decline for several years, while there were still 740,000 vehicles in 2014.
Highlighting the harmful effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on its activity, PSA (which includes the Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall brands) underlines that the crisis has nevertheless been an opportunity to develop on the e- trade.
He hopes to sell 100,000 vehicles via this channel by the end of 2021 in Europe, against 40,000 last year.
On the Old Continent, the manufacturer also notes that its sales “recovered strongly” during the second half of 2020, increasing by 40% compared to the first six months of the year.
It also emphasizes maintaining its market share in its main territory, France.
Peugeot resists the best, Opel sinks
The trend was similar in China, where deliveries have been increasing month after month since September, reaching in December 2020 their level of December 2019. In the Middle East Africa region, PSA is pleased to have seen its deliveries climb by 20%, to nearly 200,000 units, in a market down 14%, while it suffered in Latin America (-29.7% to 95,357).
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Among the group's entities, it was Peugeot which resisted the best in 2020 (-23% to 1.1 million sales) and Opel Vauxhall which was the most penalized by the health crisis (-35% to around 630,000 ).
PSA is now focused on its marriage to Fiat Chrysler, popular Monday by shareholders and supposed to make it reach a critical size in a car market in full revolution.
The PSA-FCA union, effective Saturday, will give birth to Stellantis, the world's fourth largest automotive group in terms of vehicles sold, and third in turnover behind Japanese Toyota and German Volkswagen.
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This new group will have more than 400,000 employees and will house in the same garage 14 emblematic and very different brands such as Citroën and Maserati (already briefly married 50 years ago), Fiat and Opel, Peugeot and Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep .
