All-new 2024 Citroën C3 EV Due October, priced at around £25k

Citroën readies new £25k C3 EV. Affordable electric supermini with 180-mile range will take on cheap Chinese arrivals.

Citroën will pitch itself headlong into the affordable EV market this October with a battery version of its revised C3 that will cost “below €25,000” in France and hit the UK market at prices around £25,000.

There will also be new ICE-powered models in the wider C3 range, but Citroën has insisted that the ë-C3 will become the lead offering in its B-segment hatchback range. This represents a bold attempt by the Stellantis group to start addressing the issue of affordable EVs. Until now, European manufacturers have concentrated on high-value EVs while Chinese manufacturers make rapid progress with the bigger-scale, low-cost EVs that the market will ultimately need. The ë-C3, which Citroën said will be “fully equipped” as standard with niceties such as air conditioning and electric windows, is claimed to be based on a platform that’s “BEV-native”.

Identical in its major dimensions to the current C3, the new car will have a strong relationship with the more affordable C3 that was introduced to India last year and then to South America, which uses what Stellantis confusingly calls its Smart Car platform, an adapted and improved version of the CMF-B platform that is already widely in use. For now, Citroën isn’t quoting technical details of the ë-C3, revealing only that it will be around four metres long, be comfortable, be up to date and have a range of more than 186 miles. It is possible that Citroën’s entry-level electric car will share tech with the ë-Berlingo. The electric MPV has an older-generation and cheaper-to-manufacture 50kWh battery pack that gives it an official range of 182 miles – similar to the target noted for the ë-C3.

Citroën has stressed the continuing importance of the C3 to its line-up. Sales have topped 5.5 million since the original model appeared in 1993 and the company is seeking worldwide expansion (see right). Recently arrived CEO Thierry Koskas, who is also sales and marketing chief of the whole Stellantis group, said the new C3 will be offered in a much-simplified range of three levels, each with a maximum of five options. He believes this simplicity will aid buyers who are often confused and frustrated by the complexity of ranges and will streamline the production system at Citroën’s factory in Slovakia.

With the new C3 range, Koskas also plans to offer what he calls fair price transparency, an attempt to reduce discounting, although he still said the prices would “not be frozen” and there would continue to be room for some negotiation. He sees maintaining prices at near-quoted levels as “a matter of discipline”. There is no news yet on UK prices or a launch date for the new C3, but it’s expected to reach our market soon after it’s offered in France.

ë-C3 inspiration may come from Indian C3 and sustainable Oli concept

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