Citroen Delayed Launch of Citroen C5 Aircross in India

The whole automotive market in India has undergone hardships in the last two months due to the ongoing pandemic. Given the situation, many car manufacturers have changed their plans and a lot of scheduled car launches have been postponed. Recently, Citroen, a new entrant in the Indian car market, has confirmed that the launch of its first vehicle - the C5 Aircross – will be delayed until early 2021. Originally it was expected to be launched in August this year.

Citroen C5 Aircross’s launch is delayed until early next year.

According to the original plan, the French car manufacturer will roll off the Citroen C5 Aircross as its first vehicle in India from its assembly line. To prepare for the operation in the India market, the Citreon is establishing a network of showrooms and touchpoints across the nation. The first showroom based on the La Maison concept was under construction in Ahmedabad. It is expected that Citroen will set up 15 new showrooms across India. Moreover, the Citroen C5 Aircross will be manufactured at the carmaker's Tamil Nadu-based manufacturing facility.

However, due to the current unexpected situation, there is a small change in the timeline and the launch of the Citroen will be moved to early next year. Around that time, the market is expected to be fully recovered and the demand will be restored after the slowdown.

Talking about the feature list, Citroen C5 Aircross will come fully-equipped with a host of advanced and latest technologies. It is expected to come with an eight-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, two-zone automatic climate control, 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, and powered front seats along with safety features like six airbags, ABS with EBD, EPB and more.

Under the hood, the India-spec Citroen C5 Aircross is likely to be powered by a 1.5-litre diesel engine which will churn out a peak power output of 131 Bhp. Another engine option that might make its way to the India-spec C5 Aircross is a 2.0-litre diesel engine. This engine generates a maximum power of 180 PS. These engines might come with an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

Citroen C5 Aircross will rival against other premium SUVs like Jeep Compass, Skoda Karoq or Hyundai Tucson

Citroen C5 Aircross will compete in the premium SUV space against the likes of Skoda Karoq and Jeep Compass. The price of this premium SUV is expected to start from around Rs 20.00 lakh. Following the launch of the C5 Aircross, the French car brand will introduce a compact SUV codenamed C21. Unlike the first launch, the second model will be competitively priced and targeted to gain high sales volume. However, it is the Citroen C5 Aircross that will lay the foundation stone for Citroen’s upcoming line-up.