Peugeot returns to van market
Peugeot Citroen Australia has announced its strategy to start selling light-commercial vehicles again, but its three confirmed van models will surprisingly wear Peugeot badges, having previously been expected to use Citroen branding.
Peugeot’s mid-size Expert will enter showrooms later this month, while its small Partner and large Boxer are due in the third quarter this year.
The Citroen versions of these models are known as the Dispatch, the currently on-sale Berlingo and the Relay respectively.
In a first for the Australian van market, all three vehicles will come standard with autonomous emergency braking range-wide.
Safety for all models will be further enhanced by a reversing camera, rear parking sensors and at least four airbags.
While the Partner, Expert and Boxer will come with a five-year warranty like other Peugot Citroen Australia, PCA, models, it will be restricted to 200,000km, meaning they miss out on the unlimited term that their passenger-car and SUV siblings have.
PSA Group is the leading supplier of small, mid-size and large vans in Europe, with a market share of about 25 percent.
Managing director Ben Farlow said PCA was looking to build on this success.
“Throughout Europe, Peugeot is synonymous with commercial vehicles, leveraging the marque’s design credentials and pairing them with practicality and functionality honed over decades of commercial vehicle engineering,” he said.
“The all-new Peugeot commercial vehicle range addresses the segments’ demands for safety, functionality, low running costs and total cost of ownership – including five-year warranty.
“We believe that commercial vehicle owners and operators should not sacrifice safety, comfort and convenience just because it’s a tool of trade.”
Based on PSA Group’s ubiquitous EMP2 platform, the Partner will be available with two body lengths, enabling cargo volumes up to 4.4 cubic metres and payloads up to 1000kg.
Manual and automatic transmissions will be available with the Partner alongside several engines, but exact details are yet to be confirmed.
In addition to the aforementioned standard equipment, the Partner will feature lane-departure warning, speed sign recognition, front parking sensors, six airbags, sliding left-side doors, 180-degree rear barn doors and the i-cockpit cabin.
The Expert also uses the EMP2 architecture and will be offered with two body lengths, 4950mm and 5300mm, with a sub-2000mm height, both of which will come with three seats.
Cargo volumes will range up to 6.6 cubic metres, while payloads will reach up to 1300kg and load lengths will stretch up to 4000mm.
Three turbo-diesel engines have been confirmed for the Expert, with each to be mated to a manual transmission, while select powertrains will be offered with a six-speed automatic.
Standard equipment will further include blind-spot monitoring, driver attention alert, four airbags, sliding dual-side doors and 180-degree rear barn doors.
The Boxer will also be available with standard and long bodies, with cargo volumes of more than 11.5 cubic metres and 13.0 cubic metres, and maximum load lengths of 3.1m and 3.7m on offer, respectively.
A turbo-diesel engine with a manual transmission will be the only available combination, while four airbags will be standard.
Pricing and specification for the Partner, Expert and Boxer will announced closer to their respective launches later this year.