“ Reconciling electricity with accessibility. » Vast promise. This Tuesday, Citroën officially announced the launch of its new C3 in an electric version. And this, from 23,300 euros, excluding ecological bonus of 5,000 euros. An unbeatable price for a car produced in Europe, more precisely in the factory of Trnava in Slovakia. With its 320 km of autonomy and rapid charging in 20 minutes, the future C3 will be available for pre-order from tomorrow for marketing in the second quarter of 2024. A crucial issue for the manufacturer since the C3 is truly its standard bearer, with 5.6 million copies sold since its release. Last year, it still represented 45% of Citroën sales.
And the challenge is all the greater as the chevron brand is not going strong. In 2022, it showed a drop of 19% in its sales and, since January, it has shown a slight drop again, unlike all the other brands in the group, despite the success of the Friend, his car without a license. Carlos Tavares, the boss of the Stellantis group, gave Citroën and the group’s 13 other brands ten years to be profitable.
Significant costs of scale to reach this price
The launch of this new electric C3 promises to be a formidable weapon in this very popular market for city cars. First advantage: the price. Thierry Koskas, the director of the brand, announced it last May: “ Our car will be below 25,000 euros “. A successful bet, not without significant effort, he admits:
“We have a hyper-optimized platform designed from the start for electric. There are no frills in the equipment level, the range of 320 km corresponds to customer usage and we didn’t want more. On marketing, the policy was to keep our margins as low as possible.”
Three levels of equipment will thus be available for sale, in five different colors, including the historic Monte-Carlo blue of the 2 CV. The future electric C3 will have the same dimensions as those of the current thermal model, but will be raised by 10 centimeters, “ to create a feeling of security », According to Guillaume Noël, product manager for Citroën. No“airbumps”, these famous plastic side protections filled with air or a rounded silhouette, but rather a chiseled, almost aggressive look, which could be characterized as an SUV. A taboo word for Citroën.
“ This car is not an SUV, it is a B-segment sedan with SUV attributes », insists Thierry Koskas.
The future C3: stronger than Renault and Volkswagen?
Regardless, these attributes offer a feeling of space that could convince households to make it their first vehicle, Citroën hopes. Objective: to reach half of the sales of this future C3 in electric form. The most equipped model will be presented at 27,000 euros and will notably have a large screen to help with navigation. But where Citroën is even stronger is in the timing of its release. Its biggest rival, the Renault 5, produced in Douai and marketed at the same time as the C3, may not be able to reach this price. “ We are working hard to market the R5 for less than 30,000 euros », declared last August Fabrice Cambolive, general manager of the Renault brand. Another rival, the Volkswagen ID.2, also announced for less than 25,000 euros and produced in Europe, but which will not be released until 2025.
Enough to get a head start for the chevron brand. Another strong competitor: the Dacia Spring. Renault’s “low cost” brand offers an electric car for 20,800 euros, excluding bonuses, currently the cheapest on the market. Smaller and with less autonomy, the latter risks no longer being eligible for the future ecological bonus which penalizes Chinese manufacturing. HAS conversely, the future C3 should a priori benefit from it and would, in fact, be available from 18,300 euros.
An electric C3 for less than 20,000 euros?
This electric C3 dreams above all of itself as a serious competitor to future Chinese cars. For the moment, the latter are instead trying to break into the European market with large SUVs, leaving the field open to European manufacturers in the city car segment. But for how long ? Some Asian brands, such as Kia, have already announced small electric SUVs at competitive prices. “ When we look at the progress of the Hyundai and Kia brands in Europe and elsewhere, we see that they are very serious competitors and benchmarks on the market. », admits Thierry Koskas.
Another particularity, this price will be the same for all European countries. In addition, the brand is working behind the scenes to claim the future social leasing of 100 euros announced by the government.
“ We will be able to make an offer at 100 euros per month outside of the State’s participation », assures Thierry Koskas.
The C3 will also be offered in a thermal version, but its price has not been communicated. It is also a way of encouraging customers to go electric, the brand of which is intended to be a model of the Stellantis group. The director is already taking on a new project for 2025: a new C3, more urban, with 200 km of autonomy, offered at 19,990 euros.