The Citroen Survolt looks set to become the Citroen DS Roadster
Citroen are planning on turning the Citroen Survolt Concept in to a production Citroen DS Roadster, launching a DS3 Convertible and Limited Edition DS3s.
Yes, we admit – yet again – that we thought Citroen would simply badge-engineer their perfectly competent – but less than exciting – C3, C4 and C5 as DS3, DS4 and DS5, add some fancy trim and a new grill and foist a new range of DS Citroens on an unsuspecting public. But they didn’t. Instead, they made the Citroen DS3.
Despite sharing a lot of its DNA with its less inspiring C3 sibling, the DS3 conspires to be everything we could have hoped for. It’s good looking – inside and out – cool, contemporary, nimble, responsive and very able. It also ‘works’, which is a feeling rather than anything tangible. It borders on being a great car.
And it would appear that there are plenty of car buyers who feel the same about the DS3 as we do; Citroen’s DS3 sales are running at twice their predicted levels. Which, as you would expect, has motivated Citroen to look to expand the DS franchise as widely as they can.
We have the Citroen DS4 in the pipeline for Spring 2011, and we’ll see the first production version of the Citroen DS5 at the Geneva Motor Show in March, complete with high-power hybrid running gear. We will also see a DS3 Cabriolet some time soon and endless ‘Limited Edition’ DS3s as Citroen tries to out-do MINI in the marketing stakes.
But what also now seems to be in the mix is a Citroen DS Roadster based on the Citroen Survolt Concept we saw at Geneva this year. That was a good looking supermini-size two seater that looked like the love child of the GTbyCitroen and the Citroen Revolte.
The Survolt Concept was said to have a 200kw electric motor and batteries dotted all round the car. If Citroen are to make the Survolt as the DS Roadster we would expect rather more conventional power plants – although a hybrid is entirely possible – rather than an electric car.
We just hope the DS Roadster turns out to be as good as the DS3.
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