French carmaker Citroen, which is part of Stellantis, is planning on unveiling a mix of small electric vehicles that will be priced around the $27,000 (25,000 Euros) mark, undercutting their rivals on the European market by a couple of thousand dollars.
The cars are expected to be revealed in the next two-three years and the smaller models will get “kick-ass” designs to entice a wider audience, as the brand’s design boss, Pierre Leclercq, told the British publication Autocar.
As part of its well-known nonconformism, Citroen won’t just make smaller versions of bigger cars, as Leclercq says, and instead will draw inspiration from the Oli concept and smaller Ami microcar. “We are trying not to make cars that have the Russian doll effect,” the design boss added.
Gallery: Citroen Oli concept
With the current-generation Fiat 500e priced from around $33,000 (30,000 Euros) in Europe, Citroen’s upcoming electric models would be much more affordable, but to get to a lower price point, the French brand is prepared to ditch conventional infotainment systems. Instead, some of the future EVs will use the owner’s smartphone as the infotainment device, linked in one way or another to the car’s speakers.
“When you think about it, what do people want? They want the best on-board experience,” said Leclercq. “You live with your phone all day. So the closer we get [in a car] to what we have on our phone, I think the better it is. You should just have what you have on your phone,” he added.
Citroen is likely to use the same CMP platform that underpins the Opel Corsa Electric and Peugeot e-208 for its next models, which means they’ll get the same 51-kilowatt-hour battery pack and 115-kilowatt (156-horsepower) front-mounted electric motor.
“We have great products coming out soon that are, I think, really kicking ass in terms of design. It's going to be super-cool. I mean, we're excited to put those things on the road. Prices are going to be so aggressive. We can only be proud of having done it,” said Citroen’s design boss for Autocar.
The French carmaker currently has the E-C4, Ami, E-Berlingo, E-Spacetourer, E-Dispatch, and E-Relay models in its all-electric lineup.
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Source: Autocar