Dhoni is likely to endorse the brand for two years, charging Rs 7 crore for a year, the people cited earlier said.
Citroen’s spokesperson declined to comment.
Arun Pandey, chairman of sports marketing and management firm Rhiti Sports, also declined to comment.
While Dhoni has endorsed other automobile brands in the past, including Ashok Leyland and TVS Motor, it’s the first time that he will be associating with a car brand.
“Dhoni is a very high-impact brand ambassador because of his iconic performance and appeal. There are very few who have managed to cut across the regional bias of north versus south, the way he has,” said Avik Chattopadhyay, co-founder at brand consulting firm Expereal.Whether Citroen is able to gain from him as brand ambassador will depend on the extent to which it involves him, he said.“Given his reputation of being a motorhead, Citroen should get him involved in product planning and bring a CSK or an MSD edition. It must go beyond advertising. It would otherwise seem like a desperate move to create brand awareness,” he said, adding that Citroen has “bigger fundamental issues to resolve… Merely signing up with a celebrity will not help.”
Citroen, part of the Stellantis Group which entered the Indian market in 2019 and started selling cars from 2021, has a small presence in India’s competitive passenger vehicle market with a share of 0.21%. The maker of C3 and e-C3 hatchback and C5 Aircross SUVs retailed 8,330 units in the domestic market in FY24 compared with 5,990 in the previous year, according to Federation of Automobile Dealers Association.
Averaging 695 units a month, Citroen’s volume is the lowest among the mass carmakers in India.