Citroen C3 electric car confirmed to launch in India by early next year, will be exported to Europe

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has confirmed that Citroen is preparing to launch the electrified version of the C3 by early next year.

Citroen currently has two products in its Indian line-up - C3 and C5 Aircross. The former is the more affordable of the two and brings some volumes to the OEM. While the C5 Aircross is sold exclusively with a diesel engine, the C3 retails with two choices of petrol engines, both displacing 1.0L of working volume. The company is preparing an electrified avatar of the Citroen C3, which is confirmed to go on sale by early next year. Test mule of the C3 electric has been spotted numerous times by now. In fact, the car was once spotted on charge at a ‘Tata Power’ charging station. Once launched, the Citroen C3 electric will rub shoulders with the likes of Tata Tiago EV and more.

In a recent interaction, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares revealed the upcoming Citroen C3’s launch timeline. When asked about the company's electric vehicle plans for India, he said Stellantis plans to launch the electric version of its compact car C3 "early next year" without divulging details.

However, he said Stellantis is working hard to achieve a cost structure that would make EVs affordable and other quality parameters and depending on how quickly it is able to achieve those targets, the company could start exporting such EVs from India.

"If within the next 12 months, we achieve the quality numbers and the cost numbers, then we will be able to export. One of the obvious targets is Southeast Asia," he said.

Tavares further said it could also be something that can be tested for Europe in future.

"So far Europe is unable to make affordable EVs. So the big opportunity for India would be to be able to sell EV compact cars at an affordable price protecting the profitability... This is what we are working on but it is not decided... This is what we are trying to do," he added.

With inputs from agencies.