New Delhi: The Citroen C3 SUV, which is codenamed as CC21, is about to be launched in the Indian market early next year. It will be the first SUV in India with a flex-fuel engine that is compatible with ethanol-based fuel.
French auto giant Citroen will gear up to introduce its second vehicle in India. After the C5, it is looking at bringing in a smaller model in the sub-compact SUV segment and could be called as C3. It is also likely to be the first car with a flex-fuel engine to hit the Indian markets.
The C3 SUV has been spotted several times on the Indian road testing in camouflaged form. It is likely to be launched next year, in April. However, according to the reports, the C3 SUV will officially be unveiled by Citroen next month, on September 16.
Production of the C3 SUV might happen at the same time in the carmaker’s India plant in Thiruvallur near Chennai and the Porto Real plant in Brazil.
According to the reports, Citroen will be fitting the C3 SUV with flex-fuel engine which is compatible with ethanol-based fuel, besides a 1.6-litre naturally aspirated engine. The flex-fuel engine will have a capacity of 1.2-litre with turbocharge, mated to either a 5-speed manual or automatic gearbox.
The report says that Citroen C3 could be the first car on Indian roads to run on such engine, which the Centre seeks to promote alternate fuel. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of road, transport and highway, had recently said that the government is planning to make it mandatory for carmakers in India to produce vehicles with flex-fuel engines, which is compatible with fuel like ethanol-blended petrol.
Nitin had also said that his ministry will come up with a decision to make it compulsion for carmakers to have flex-fuel engine vehicles in its lineup. Such engines are already used widely in Brazil, Canada and United States.
The C3 SUV is likely to be Citroen’s first car produced on the brand’s new Common Modular Platform (CMP). Citroen planned the C3 SUV to keep its price reasonable. The engineers have been entrusted by the car makers for this, from Tata with the mission of clear out the CMP platform in order to develop a C3 in line with local demand. Also, Tata Punch, which was recently unveiled, can also be called a technical cousin of the C3 model.