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MADRID — Citroen will launch a full-electric version of its New C3 minicar next month in India, but it’s not clear if the car will be developed for Europe as a rival to the Dacia Spring.
The New C3, a four-door hatchback less than 4 meters long, is the first model in Citroen’s Smart Car range, which is aimed at emerging and developing markets. It will be followed by two more models in the next two years. Citroen says it has received orders for 6,000 New C3s in India, where it is built near Chennai, and 7,000 in Brazil, where the car will be assembled at the Porto Real factory.
Citroen CEO Vincent Cobee said on the sidelines of a Citroen event in Madrid that he would not comment on whether the eC3, as it will be known, would be homologated and sold or produced in Europe.
Renault Group has sold the Spring, which was originally developed as a combustion-engine vehicle for the Indian market called the Renault Kwid, since 2021 in Europe. The electric version is built in China with Renault’s joint venture partner JMEV.
The Spring has been a success for Dacia, with more than 40,000 sales in 2022, at a price as low as 16,000 euros with incentives (in France). Dacia says it has received more than 100,000 orders since its launch in spring 2021.
Cobee said that in India that the eC3 would be first sold to business customers or fleet operators because of a lack of public charging infrastructure. The eC3 for India will be built alongside gasoline versions at Stellantis’ factory near Chennai, which it operates in a joint venture with CK Birla.
According to news reports in India, the eC3 will have a 30 kilowatt-hour battery from China’s SVolt, which would be slightly more than the 26.8 kWh battery in the Dacia Spring. The Spring has a range of 234 km on the WLTP mixed cycle.
Looking ahead, models in the Smart Car range will also be built at Stellantis’ factory in Kenitra, Morocco, which will see an investment of 300 million euros to double capacity. The current Citroen C3 for Europe, which was launched in 2016, is built at Stellantis’ factory in Trnava, Slovakia.