Citroen will launch its first compact SUV for India, code-named C21 (also termed CC21), around the festive season this year and begin production of the vehicle by the August-September period.
Based on the firm’s C3 Aircross, it will be its first mass market product here and will compete in the booming sub-4 metre SUV class currently led by the Hyundai Venue and Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza.
The carmaker had planned to start production of the product by July this year, but the timeline has since changed.
To be built on PSA’s Common Modular Platform (CMP) the Citroen C21 compact SUV will be a petrol-only model and will come with both naturally-aspirated (NA) and turbocharged engines.
Both Manual and automatic gearbox choices will be offered for the 1.2-litre turbo-petrol variant, while the NA petrol will likely only come with a manual transmission.
It is evident that Citroen India wants to keep costs down in order to have a good reach in the market, the reason why it will completely localise its turbo-petrol engine.
Before the C21 gets launched though, the brand will introduce the C5 Aircross to mark its entry in India. It will shortly be followed by the compact SUV and a Hyundai Creta-rivalling CC24 SUV that will enter production by June 2022.
Following that would be the launch of a sedan (code-named CC26) that will compete in the C-segment which is ruled by the Honda City.
Not to let Tata get away in the affordable electric vehicle segment with its Nexon EV, the Citroen C21 compact SUV will also spawn an electric variant. But, the timeline of its introduction is not known.
Although it has lined up a slew of products for India, the firm does not plan to sell massive number of cars in its early years of operations, at least. For example, Citroen has only planned to produce 2200 units of its CC24 SUV a month.
This conservative approach will also reflect on the brand’s dealership network which is not expected to grow beyond 20 outlets in the next 2 years. Currently, Citroen has 10 dealerships pan India.
What the firm bets big on is exports which will begin right from the commencement of domestic operations. Citroen’s target export numbers are much higher than local market volumes for 3 of its upcoming models.
Source – ETAuto.com