Citroën says it's back – and I'm minded to agree

C3 is made to a budget but it doesn't feel cheap – a key part of Citroën's forward-looking ethos

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Opinion

5 mins read

24 May 2024

Citroën is “back in recovery mode after many years of declining performance”, proclaimed CEO Thierry Koskas at the launch of the new Citroën C3. After 24 hours in the company of Koskas, his key executive team and their latest car, I’m minded to agree.

Cars have got more expensive and overloaded with technology, and Citroën is fighting back by offering a level of equipment and performance that doesn't make you feel like you've cut corners and made compromises while also not piling in a load of equipment you’ll never use but have to pay for. The C3 is the first car built like this, with the rest of the range to follow.

Based on the evidence of the new C3, you’re getting a lot of car for your money and it is the rare combination of being cheap without feeling it, while still good value. Plus, it’s a quiet watershed moment in the rise of EVs because the electric version costs the same as a typical petrol supermini. Impressive stuff.

The company has got its messaging right and has a clear plan that makes total sense in the current climate, both inside and outside the automotive industry.

It’s a similar playbook to Dacia in many ways, yet the two remain distinct: at its heart, Dacia is a budget brand and has always built cars to that ethos - albeit one that is itself creeping up in price and positioning - whereas Citroën is a mainstream brand that has used engineering trickery to reduce its costs and allow the customer to benefit. One is coming up, while the other is coming down without cutting perceived costs to the customers.

To that end, Citroën seems to be the only brand in the mainstream to not think that the only way to stay profitable is to make ever bigger and more ‘premium’ cars with more technology. Less can mean more.

“We’re clear what we are,” said Koskas. “Affordable cars, comfortable cars, simple cars. We’re not technology Christmas trees.”

At the heart of all this is the ‘Smart Car’ architecture, which is forensically and ruthlessly designed and developed with an eye on cost and, as such, is considered “a breakthrough for the company”, according to product director Laurence Hansen. Whereas most architectures are designed and therefore costed with the largest and most substantial variant in mind, the Smart Car architecture is designed to a base level that can then be added to. “People are happy with that level,” Hansen said.

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A brand like Citroën seems most under threat from the rise of lower-cost Chinese rivals, yet Koskas is not concerned. Instead, he says European production of his cars will help insulate it as Chinese-built models have been excluded from subsidies enjoyed by European-made electric cars in France. He doesn’t know if other countries will follow suit, but he still regards being built in Europe as a “clear advantage”.

Koskas will also not try and build a Citroën to suit every size and budget, focusing on no more than half a dozen well-positioned models in the B- and C-segments. City cars aren’t profitable and larger, D-segment cars just aren’t bought anywhere any more unless they have a premium badge and, in truth, they haven’t been since the days of the Ford Mondeo.

He says the trend of launches will still be balanced towards electric cars, albeit with an ever-improving cost ratio to internal-combustion-engined cars, yet he sees no need to put an end date prematurely on ICE models. The legislation currently says 2035 as an end point, although his reaction to the question suggests he’d happily make cars other than EVs well beyond then.

There are already numbers to back up Koskas’s optimism. The firm’s European market share is at 4% so far this year, having had no quarter above 3.8% in 2023 and one as low as 3.3%. Globally, its sales outside of Europe are up 9% this year.

The overhaul doesn’t stop with the cars: finance offers have been made more attractive; advertising has been improved; and a new website has made Citroëns simpler to specify and buy, including reducing options down to almost zero and specifications boosted as a result. Much of this is “not rocket science”, said Koskas, but simply “better management”.

Dealers are to be made “fresher and more colourful”, and in the case of the UK, there are set to be more of them, with the brand aiming to sign an extra 14 this year. Ford dealers disillusioned with their current brand’s upmarket push are understood to be among them…

Koskas uses five words to describe this latest reinvention of Citroën: comfortable, sustainable, simple, daring and, above all, popular. The decisions he’s taken that have led to lower prices are absolutely that.

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“We want to be a popular brand, not low cost, but affordable mobility for everyone," he said. "The new ë-C3 and C3 are low cost but don’t look it.

“There is an absolute need for this, as people did not want the price increases of the past two to three years and do not want to put extra money into a car. There is a territory to be occupied and I don’t want to leave it. It fits absolutely the DNA of the Citroën brand."

Mark Tisshaw

Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?, Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.