Citroen's product selection for the Indian market has been rather strategic and a bit audacious as well. In April this year, the French brand made its India foray with the C5 Aircross going up against the Jeep Compass and Hyundai Tucson and stepping directly into the mid-size SUV segment that had both room and volumes. Well! Initially it ditched the hotly contested compact SUV segment where Koreans have the market by storm. Now that's a well calculated preference and the same approach has been taken with the recently unveiled Citroen C3 as well which enters the premium hatch segment with just three core rivals and not the over-crowded subcompact SUV segment. Now while the C3 is going to be Citroen's second India launch, going on sale early 2022, and the company will launch two more models coming off the same platform in the following two years.
Also Read: Citroen C3: Why A Hatchback Is The Brand's First Mass Offering In India
The second model going on sale could be the Citroen C3 Aircross in 2023.
Speaking to Siddharth Vinayak Patankar, Editor-In-Chief - carandbike on a new Freewheeling with SVP webisode, Vincent Cobee, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)- Citroen said, "When you launch a brand in a particular large market like India, it's not a one car issue. You need to offer diversity and choice to customers. But clearly you also need to have a regularity of launches and you keep the competition and activity of newness going. We have decided to launch a series of three cars on a regular interval and we'll address the various needs of the Indian market, that's fundamental. We also believe that it'll give us scale. The launch of the C3 will be in 2022, we are quite confident it's going to be in the first half of 2022 and yes it safe to assume that three cars in three years, one per year is the pace we are in for."
Also Read: Citroen C3 Makes Debut In India
Citroen could also consider bringing the C4 Aircross in 2024.
So, by 2024 India will have three new Citroen models, one launch every year and the carmaker will be testing waters with one of these models in the hardcore SUV segment. Cobee said that Citroen is not completely ignoring the SUV segment and the scope for the C3 Aircross or the compact SUV version of the C3 is still there. A Hyundai Creta rival, it will be spawned on the same Common Modular Platform (CMP) that underpins the C3 sub-four metre hatch and offers up to 90 per cent localisation. The third model again is likely to enter a segment that has room and more scope for volumes, that the compact sedan or crossover segment. So it could be a either a sedan like the CC26 or the C4 coupe crossover. Both models are underpinned by the scalable version of the CMP platform, but we're yet to get clarity from the company on the detail.
