SOCKET TO’ EM CITROEN!
Citroen’s new C5 Aircross, unveiled in Paris this week, will be its first vehicle to offer a plug-in electric hybrid option that can be charged from the mains while still having the security of a conventional engine.
Coventry-born Linda Jackson, who’s run the Citroen wing of parent company PSA for the past four years, says it’s just the start of Citroen’s electrical revolution.
By 2023 about 80 per cent of the range will include fully electric and electric hybrid options — as well as traditional petrol and diesel versions — rising to 100 per cent by 2025.
Moves by cities to ban all but zero-emissions cars from their centres will accelerate the revolution, she predicts.
orders for the C5 Aircross open on november 1 with first UK deliveries in early February. expect it to cost from about £23,200 to £32,700. A year later, the UK will get the plug-in hybrid. this latest family SUV promises to be the most comfortable model yet thanks to a system that includes clever suspension and specially designed seats. it can be highly personalised with 30 exterior colour combinations.
There are three sliding, folding and reclining rear seats, and ample boot space. it incorporates 20 driver assistance systems, including Highway Driver Assist and ‘grip control’, as well as wireless smartphone charging. Mrs Jackson said Britain is her fifth largest market and her target is to boost global sales from 1.1 million to 1.6 million by 2021. ‘The C5 Aircross is our flagship until we get a new saloon car.’ some of the older cars in the firm’s line- up face the axe. Customers should brace themselves for major developments, she predicted: ‘so much is going to change over the next ten years. Will people even own a car in the future?’ Leasing and mobile phone-style fixed monthly payments are becoming increasingly the norm, she told me.