High European demand for Citroën’s class-leading HDi Diesel engine, fitted to the Xsara, Xsara Picasso, Xantia and Synergie plus the company’s commercial vehicles, means that engineers at the Citroën factory at Tremery in France are now working flat out seven days a week.
In stark contrast to stories of surplus production elsewhere within the industry, the Citroën plant is currently operating 24 hours a day throughout the week, plus Saturdays and Sundays. With production levels already reaching 7,000 engines a day, it is planned to increase output by a further 1,000 units per day by the end of the year.
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The phenomenal success of the advanced technology common rail HDi engine has been repeated right across Europe and has helped fuel an increase in Citroën sales of 14% in the first half of 2000, while UK sales have reached an all time high of over 50,000 in the same period.
Quiet, refined and exceptionally fuel efficient, the powerful 90 and 110HP HDi units make a compelling alternative to traditional diesel engines, while also offering far lower emission figures of CO2, the principal greenhouse gas.
Citroën’s petrol engines are set to receive a boost too, with the Company’s next generation of high torque, fuel-efficient HPi petrol units expected to mirror the success of HDi. These new high pressure direct injection petrol engines will also be built at the Tremery plant, before being progressively introduced across a broad spectrum of the Citroën range.
