The electrification of the automotive sector seems to be advancing at a good pace. All brands work to shape their respective technologies and they all have one thing in common: they are looking to make them affordable for their customers. However, each manufacturer is "taking its own path" and perhaps the ideal would be to look for a standard that unites and is easier to, in the end, lower production costs. AND Citroën has decided to be one of the pioneers…
Yes, because the gala house has set itself an ambitious goal: put affordable electric on the market. So it is that those responsible are mulling over the issue and would have reached the following conclusion. They will move down the range to "Dacia style without becoming Dacia" to offer a competitive range of electric vehicles. And as collected by some sources, the first to see the light is the Fourth iteration C3 with the ë-C3 plus the new C3 AirCross.
The new Citroën C3 and its electric brother ë-C3 BEV will debut at the end of 2023 and will be based on the OLI (all-ë)…
If you do a little memory you will remember that not long ago they presented to the world the OLI (all-ë) Concept. With it they showed what a hypothetical urban model with crossover and electric overtones could be like. Well then, to give continuity to this Citroën project would present the fourth generation of the C3 before 2023 comes to an end. Along with it would come a one hundred percent electric version that will be called ë-C3 with a very ambitious goal...
According to various sources, including L'argus, this ë-C3 should have a final sale price of around 25 thousand euros. This figure is the same that Volkswagen and other brands have set for their battery-powered urban cars. But there is more, because everything indicates that the electric ë-C3 will be manufactured in Kragujevac (Serbia) so it would be an important step forward. European manufacturing and a "quasi" demolition price that would not force it to be brought from China.
For its part, the thermal C3 (CC21) will be assembled in the factory that Citroën has in Trnava (Slovakia). And the chosen center is not accidental, since the successor to the C3 AirCross (CC24) would also leave these facilities. In addition, it would do it with another one hundred percent electric version, but they would not be ready until the first half of 2024. All of them would have in common be part of the “Smart Car” project which would have simplified PSA's CMP platform.
Regarding the technique of the powertrain, it would be simpler than that of the current Citroën electrics. So, the battery of the access model would be of the lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) type with 40 kWh of energy capacity to feed about 82 CV of power. The most complete versions would have a nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery with 50 kWh of capacity to feed an electric motor of only 109 CV of power.
With everything, the end of 2023 and 2024 are getting closer and with that we know all the plans that Citroën has prepared for us... And the C3 and ë-C3 BEV will attract a lot of attention... At the same time...
Source - L'argus
