New Citroen C3 Revealed

Citroen has revealed the New Citroen C3

Most of the news coming out of Citroen of late has been about the new range of upmarket Citroens – the DS Range. And in a sense so is this, as the new Citroen C3 – which Citroen has just revealed – will be the underpinnings for the upmarket version – the new Citroen DS3.

According to Citroen, the new C3 gets a ‘Sportier’ design and a more robust appearence. The Citroen C3 has been precieved as a bit ‘girly’, but Citroen reckons the changes to the new C3 – including a wider track – will give it more appeal to men.

The Citroen C3 is scheduled to launch at Frankfurt in September – together with its ‘Posh’ sibling the DS3 – and Citroen claim it has a number of ‘Creative Technologie’ elements including the ‘Unique’ windscreen – VisioDrive – which is extended in to the roof area to create a panorama. But isn’t this the same type of panoramic screen Vauxhall has been offering for ages?

Citroen is aiming to make the C3 far more fuel efficient than the old C3, mainly with the use of some new powerplants. Together with the 1.4 & 1.6 HDi turbo-diesels, Citroen will be launching a 90bhp HDi diesel which manages to emit just 99g/k of Co2 – the first mainstream Citroen to break the 100g/km barrier. Later – probably in 2011 – Citroen will introduce a new range of smaller capacity diesel engines which will push CO2 emissions down to 90g/km. And following on from that will be a new range of 3-pot engines which will all break the 100g/km barrier.

The current Citroen C3 has been a big seller, clocking up more than 2 million sales. And rumour has it that Citroen will be keeping the old model in production for some time to come as an ‘Entry-Level’ model.

Expect to see the new Citroen C3 in UK showrooms by the start of 2010.