Citroën makes nice French: “It’s done with the SUV”

You don’t have to be a specialist to see that the car market is increasingly being flooded with SUVs. Citroën has its own opinion on this.

The French always see the car world a little differently. If you delve into the history of the car, the special creations often come from the land of love. Think the ingenious Citroën DS, the talking Renault 25 or the quirky Peugeot 1007. Also in 2023, don’t let remarkable thoughts stop you. In this case at Citroen.

SUVs immensely popular

“The world of SUVs is ready,” says CEO Vincent Cobée firmly AutoExpress. Remarkable, all the more so since he seems to come back to it immediately. “But the sales numbers don’t tell me I’m right.” And indeed: Almost half of all cars sold in Europe are now SUVs.

Cobée’s testimony is a bit more nuanced. According to him, the end of the SUV era is all about the transition to full electrification. “If the aerodynamics of an electric car are bad, you get a huge range penalty. With bad aero you can lose 50 kilometers of range and the difference between an SUV and a sedan can easily be 80 kilometers.”

shame

According to the CEO, this problem cannot be solved simply by installing larger batteries. “People will limit weight and battery size because of (rising) taxes, subsidies or embarrassment. The A segment has already disappeared due to strict regulations, and the D segment SUVs will disappear due to aerodynamics and weight,” said the Frenchman.

Not only that, because according to Cobée, the climate crisis and the perception of SUVs are also causing the end of the segment. “Five years ago, if you took your kids to school in a big SUV, you were the man. If you do that now, you are a ‘terrorist’…”

The car now weighs two tons

According to Cobée, the increasing weight of an average car is no longer acceptable. “In 1970, a car weighed an average of 700 kg. Today that is 1300 kg. Tomorrow the average car will weigh two tons. So we’re using three times as many resources to provide the same service, all to be ‘green’.” Cobée therefore sees a more important role to play in expanding the charging network.

That doesn’t mean that Citroën will stop building and selling SUVs immediately. The brand now offers the electric C4 and C4 X, both of which are high-legged models, although they have a sloping roofline for better aerodynamics. It also sells the large and recently renewed C5 Aircross, although that’s not an all-electric model. Nevertheless, the French brand already showed at the end of last year in which direction it wants to go. He did that with the mischievous Oli, a lightweight and minimalistic concept car that squeezes out a range of more than 400 kilometers from a relatively small 40 kWh battery.