Groupe PSA sees Citroën as a mere brand and one which must not challenge Peugeot. The lion logo marque is in turn supposed to be near-luxury in the style of how Volkswagen is perceived in most parts of the world. The double chevron symbol make is also sub-DS, a name still battling to gain any traction outside France six years since it was invented.
Some would say that DS has failed in China. Indeed the evidence for that accusation is abundant, with manufacturing now wound down after sales failed to take off. PSA insists that DS will continue in the world’s largest market.
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By GlobalDataBefore COVID, the would-be luxury brand had at last been making some modest progress in some European countries at least, with electric and PHEV versions of the 7 Crossback and newer 3 Crossback finding ever more buyers in each month.
If DS division survives a crowded-with-marques merger of FCA and PSA, it may even have a decent 2021 as the model range begins to be filled out. A large leap of the imagination is required to see what it actually is even now, let alone what it will be meant to be in the later 2020s though.
Eliminating DS and allowing Citroën to push upwards to where it once had been for many many decades makes infinite sense. Instead, Groupe PSA wants to believe that Citroën should instead make ‘comfortable’ cars and SUVs, none of which, in the real world, can command big margins or be sold with minimal discounting.
The group is pressing on with its strategy, hoping that outside China, all three French brands can work in a similar fashion to Hyundai, Kia and Genesis. What happens if and when the merger with FCA comes to pass though, and that’s not even considering Opel (and Vauxhall)?
Citroën
If Europe is challenging, then China shows how PSA keeps getting it wrong, especially with Citroën. Based on the C3-XR crossover, M443, the new C3L, is a 4,505 mm long crossover sedan for the local market, manufactured by Dongfeng PSA. The standard engine is Groupe PSA’s well known 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol turbo. For this car the outputs are 114 hp and 190 Nm. Even though the C-Elysée remains in production, the C3L will be its eventual successor.
There is nothing especially memorable about the new model, other than its odd stance (and outdated tech as well as its ancient PF1 platform). Why anyone would choose this vehicle rather than something from Volkswagen, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Chevrolet, Geely, Changan, Chery or a wealth of other marques is a question that those who created the C3L should be asking themselves. Not to put too fine a point on it, if this if the brand’s vision for digging itself out of a hole, then any dramatic or even steadily rising turnaround will surely have to be for another day.
The soon to be on sale Ami shows just how bargain basement the Peugeot family feels their secondary brand ought to be. The 2.4 m long two-door, two-seater is available to buy (from 6,000 euro), lease or be treated as a generic appliance via car sharing schemes. The little car has a 6 kW motor and a 5.5 kWh battery, a maximum range of just 70 km and a top speed of 45 km/h. Classed as a quadricycle, in France the Ami can be driven by anyone over the age of 14 and no driver’s licence is necessary. Stated weight is a mere 485 kg. Production at the Ameur Seflia plant in Morocco should last for a decade with a facelift in 2025.
Groupe PSA is said to be planning to build a small Citroën at its Indian JV from later this year. The sub-4 m long hatchback is expected to be aimed at the Maruti Suzuki Swift. In January 2017, PSA announced a deal with New Delhi-based CK Birla Group for a return to the local market via a JV. This will mean production at a Hindustan Motors plant in Chennai.
Logically, the car’s architecture would be CMP, which is for smaller Groupe PSA and Dongfeng Motor vehicles. The French firm and its Chinese part-owner co-developed this low-cost platform. The Fengshen AX4 was the first model for CMP. At the moment, only the project code is known, and that is SC21.
India’s subcompact Citroën will likely be based on the second generation Peugeot 208, although there is a possibility that Groupe PSA will instead ship the tooling for the first generation 208 to India. It uses the PF1 architecture and was manufactured in France, Slovakia, Brazil and China.
The new C4, announced yesterday (16th), will be revealed in detail on 30th and available to order from that day. Production is still some months away though, and Groupe PSA is yet to officially confirm that it will be made at Villaverde. The first deliveries are not expected to take place until October.
Using Groupe PSA and Dongfeng Motor’s CMP platform, this model replaces both the C4 (C segment) and C4 Cactus (B segment). Variants with petrol, diesel and fully electric powertrains will be offered.
Until it became known that there would be an EV version of this model, mystery had surrounded the identity of a future second vehicle for the Madrid factory. Unions agreed to the May 2017 elimination of the second shift after PSA promised that another “high volume” model would be built there from 2021. Groupe PSA pledged to spend €144m prepping the plant for this car. The ë-C4 will also be fully detailed online at the end of this month.
Details of the C4 and ë-C4’s expected life cycles as well as other information can be found in PLDB. Citroën refers to them as Compact hatchbacks and indeed they are said to be just shy of 4.4 m long.
So as to build on the success of the Peugeot 508 in Europe, a larger model for Citroën, rather than a C5, is said to be under development. The C-Experience concept which was first displayed at the 2016 Paris motor show is believed to provide some hints at the thinking behind the new model. The production car will likely be a fastback and probably an estate too, making the C6 a rival for the Skoda Superb.
The new model will likely be built in France and China from late 2020, though COVID-19 may have caused its arrival to be pushed back to 2021. Expect a PHEV too. The Dongfeng Citroën joint venture has built and sold a C6 in the Chinese market since 2016 but that car has not been a success. The new global model is expected to be its local replacement.
DS
Although a successor for the DS 5 had been mentioned by PSA back in 2015, and in the context of a new vehicle to be manufactured at a plant in Mulhouse, nothing became of such would-be plans. This was for a variety of reasons, one of which was changes in buyer preferences (i.e. crossovers rather than conventional hatchbacks), which led to the 7 Crossback rather than a new 5 (or 4).
Now though, a replacement for the 4 is on the way. It won’t be built at the Groupe PSA factory near the border but rather in Germany itself, at Opel’s main manufacturing base. As Rüsselsheim is already being retooled to make the next Opel and Vauxhall Astra, building the second generation 4 there (some three years after the first generation was discontinued) is a relatively low cost, low risk move. There should also be a plug-in hybrid (4 E-Tense), although this is not yet confirmed.
X83 is the code for the 9, a 4,933 mm long sedan, images of which have been publicised but the car itself is yet to be revealed in the metal. Closely related to the second generation Peugeot 508L, the DS 9 will be manufactured in China at one of the Dongfeng Motor joint venture’s plants. Groupe PSA insists that it will be exported not only to France but to other European countries, including the UK. Production numbers will surely be fairly low.
As well as the 225 PS 1.6-litre petrol turbo engine, there are to be three PHEVs. These have stated outputs of 225 PS, 250 PS and 360 PS with the third one having two electric motors rather than a single one, plus all-wheel drive. See PLDB for further details of the PHEVs, which are grouped as the 9 E-Tense. Other DS models are also listed in the database.
Reports for many other manufacturers’ future models are grouped in the OEM product strategy summaries section of just-auto.com.
Future platform intelligence
More detail on past, current and forthcoming models can be found in PLDB, the future vehicles database which is part of GlobalData’s Automotive Intelligence Center. That includes the many Citroën and DS models not included in the above report.
This was the second of three features in a series which looks at the passenger car brands of Groupe PSA. It follows a focus on Peugeot, with the next and final instalment to investigate what’s coming for Opel and Vauxhall.
