Citroen C5 Aircross SUV begins road testing in India

The French brand Citroen will soon be launching its first model for the Indian market, the C5 Aircross SUV this year. It has been decided by the company that the new C5 Aircross SUV will be brought to the Indian market through the CKD route (Completely Knocked Down).

However, the future vehicles of the french automaker for the Indian market will be localized completely. The cars will be designed and manufactured as per the Indian tastes and preferences. These new vehicles might arrive starting from 2021 out of which the C5 Aircross SUV will launch this year. These cars are known as “C-Cubed” inte
ally. The vehicles are going to be built on a common platform with the top hats, with first introducing a compact SUV, a hatchback and then a sedan in the coming future. 

As per the automaker, the term C-Cubed is short for ‘Cool, Comfort, Clever’. The C-Cubed vehicles are going to be based on the modified version of the platform that supports the Citroen C3 hatchback car and the Peugeot 208. Both of these cars are currently on sale in the overseas markets.

Citroen has already started the testing of this new platform in the country. In fact, a test mule has also been seen in recent times wearing a bodyshell of the Peugeot 208. But it had a little higher ground clearance as well as a huge gap in the wheel wells. 

The platform that was spotted being tested may have been the french auto brand’s first vehicle under the C-Cubed program i.e, a compact SUV car that has been inte
ally codenamed C21. This SUV will be having a localization level of approximately 90-95 percent and the price of the car will be higher in the market. 

Currently, the C5 Aircross model is in the early stages of testing. The production-spec Citroen C21 compact SUV car will feature unconventional styling which is found similar to the newer models of Citroen. It will also have a design similar to the current generation C3 model.

When it comes to the engine, this sub-four-meter SUV car will be available in the market in three engine options. This engine range has been expected to start from a 1.2-liter three-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine. The car will also come in a turbocharged version of it. In addition to these, the SUV car will also be available in a 1.5-liter DV5 diesel engine.

The engine of the SUV will be mated to a locally manufactured 6-speed manual transmission for the starters, after which an automatic version will be introduced at a later time.

The second model of the company that will be locally produced is expected to be a hatchback that will compete with the Baleno, follow the C21 SUV. We can also expect the company to bring a Citroen sedan for the Indian market based on the same platform. Although, it is not clear if this model will compete with the Swift Dzire.

Also read:- The All-new Honda Activa 6G launched with a BS6 compliant engine



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