Archive for Citroën

Citroen will be showing it’s new Citroen C-Airscape concept car at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show next month, which will give us a preview of how the next generation Citroen C5 will look like, even though the C-Airscape will be presented in cabriolet form. This might hint to us the possibility of a future coupe-convertible Citroen C5 and perhaps a drop top version of it’s mechanical twin later - the Peugeot 407.

Chassis, engine, gearbox and many other will be shared with the Peugeot 407, and the interior will be typically futuristic funky Citroen - a wide, sporty yet elegant dashboard incorporating two LCD-screens – one in the centre-console and one behind the steering wheel in place of a traditional meter panel. It will also come with the latest version of Citroen’s Hydractive suspension.

Click here to read the rest of Citroen C-Airscape Concept to debut at Frankfurt

PSA Peugeot Citroen is expected to further expand it’s cooperation with Mitsubishi Motors Cooperation after it’s badge/styling engineering efforts with the Mitsubishi Outlander as the Peugeot 4007 and Citroen C-Crosser has shown promise of becoming a hit - the entire 2007 UK stock of the C-Crosser has been snapped up by 200+ British dealers!

We are quite open to doing another SUV in the future. We will see what the reaction and feedback is on the C-Crosser first - it’s obviously too early do draw conclusions now - and see which direction the SUV market is going,” says Xaview Duchemin, Citroen UK managing director.

A lifestyle pick-up French version of the Mitsubishi Triton has been hinted.

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Related Posts:
Peugeot 4007 Details and Photos
Citroen C-Crosser Details and Photos

PSA Peugeot Citroen said going into the market of premium vehicles with a new marque might be one of the options it is considering, a move much like Nissan and Toyota with their Infiniti and Lexus brands respectively. While these two brands have had considerable success (especially Lexus), a similira move by Mazda with the Amati badge was a failure even before it was launched.

French magazine Challenges reported that PSA Peugoet Citroen might revive the old Panhard brand for it’s luxury marque, a report that PSA Peugeot Citroen declined to comment on. Panhard was a French car manufacturer that was established in 1890, but it’s modern day existence is limited to light tactical and military vehicles.

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Citroën Cruise together with the Espera Sbarro School have come up with the Citroën Cruise Crosser concept for the 2007 Geneva Motor Show. The Citroën Cruise Crosser concept is based on Citroen’s first SUV, the Mitsubishi Outlander-based Citroen C-Crosser which will go on sale later this year. The Citroën Cruise Crosser concept is a tribute to Andre Citroën, the company’s founder, who often went on adventurous automotive expeditions across Africa and Asia.

The strange 6-wheel designed truck is powered by a special hybrid drivetrain that combines a conventional turbodiesel engine with electric motor located under the rear floor. This electric motor powers the third axle right at the rear of the vehicle, while the front and middle axles are combustion engine powered. The turbodiesel engine can be shut off, leaving the car powered by the third axle alone, allowing a zero emissions drive.

One more photo after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Citroën Cruise Crosser by Espera Sbarro School

The deadline for the announcement of Proton’s new partner is coming soon, but talks do not seem to be conclusive for favorites Volkswagen and PSA Peugoet Citroen. Previously, Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamad Yakcop said Proton’s foreign strategic partner would be announced by the end of this month. This bad news adds more grief to the recent announcement of Proton’s 3rd straight quarterly loss.

Business weekly The Edge reported that talks between Proton and Volkswagen have hit a bumpy patch, and Volkswagen seems to be getting less and less keen as time passes by. It’s said that Volkswagen’s recently changed top management never really did agree to the Proton idea as much as the previous management did, so the deal might just be off if whatever problems the discussions are having right now are not sorted out quickly.

As for PSA Peugeot Citroen, it’s CEO Christian Streiff told newspaper Le Figaro that the French automaker has dropped all talks with Proton over a possible alliance. “Concerning alliances, I do not want to extend them to new partners. I would rather continue to get the most of out of the best alliances we have at the moment,” said Streiff, further reinforcing the statement that PSA would have nothing to do with Proton. It already has an alliance with a Malaysian automaker, Naza, which assembles the Peugeot 206 for local consumption as well as right hand drive exports.

(6/3/2007) UPDATE: An official press statement by PSA Peugeot Citroen continued to add that “PSA Peugeot Citroen has decided to discontinue the discussions launched in September 2006 with Proton. The talks focused on a possible co-operative venture to support the development of Peugeot and Citroen in Malaysia and to serve as a production base for the marques’ sales operations in the ASEAN region. An in-depth study of the automobile market and the economic conditions for co-producing vehicles with Proton concluded that the conditions for the project’s success were not present.”

News about Proton-General Motors talks have been almost non-existent, and GM is most probably having it’s hands full with the possible acquisition of Chrysler from DaimlerChrysler. So where does this put Proton?

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and PSA Peugeot Citroën signed an agreement regarding the supply of turbodiesel engines by the French manufacturer to it’s Japanese partner. PSA Peugeot Citroën will supply it’s 2.2 liter common rail direct injection particulate filter turbodiesel engine to Mitsubishi.

PSA Peugoet Citroen has adapted the engine to be installed in it’s two SUVs based on the Mitsubishi Outlander platform - the Peugeot 4007 and the Citroen C-Crosser SUV, and Mitsubishi will be using the engine for it’s own Mitsubishi Outlander from mid-2007 onwards. The common rail direct injection turbodiesel makes 156 bhp and 380Nm of torque, and is biodiesel ready. Biodiesel fuel up to a 30% mixture can be used without any modification to the engine.

If anything happens between Proton and PSA Peugeot Citroen, I hope it somehow involves turbodiesels as it is somewhat essential for the European market.

Proton and PSA Peugeot Citroen’s technical feasibility studies have just concluded, and both parties are in the process of evaluating the results of the studies now. The feasibility studies included gauging the feasibility of collaborating in the areas of optimizing Protons production capacity focusing on contract assembly, product collaboration, supply of engine and components, and sales and distribution collaborative and contract assembly products.

Here are some due updates on the few companies that might end up as a new stakeholder in Proton, as well as have a controlling stake in it’s manufacturing arm.

Mofaz

Mofaz has teamed up with a foreign technical partner in it’s bid for a stake in Proton Holdings Bhd. This proposal was submitted three months ago, but the foreign partner in question was not named. Mofaz intends to help turn Proton around, and stresses this is more important than owning a stake in it. How do have the power to turn Proton around without having a controlling stake in Proton, I don’t know. Apparently Mofaz has it’s own way of influencing Proton’s management without a stake?! - Source

Sime Darby

No firm acknowledgement of the intention to buy shares so far. Sime Darby itself has had it’s shares suspended to be merged with Kumpulan Guthrie, and Golden Hope.

Naza

Naza, being a private company, has no Bursa Malaysia sending them queries to explain news so they’ve been quiet about this for quite sometime. But Tan Sri SM Nasimuddin SM Amin finally let the bird out of the cage at the launch of Naza’s new 3S facility at Juru. A letter of intent has been submitted two months ago to the government on the matter of the Naza Group acquiring a stake in Proton Holdings Bhd. Naza believes it can bring the company to greater heights. - Source

DRB-HICOM

Refer to this post for the latest on DRB-HICOM’s plans to take over Proton. No new updates since then.

Volkswagen

No word from Volkswagen themselves, but our government has confirmed it is in talks with Volkswagen again, with the possibility of a controlling stake purchase, which is what Volkswagen wanted but was denied before talks broke down some time ago.

PSA Peugeot Citroen

PSA’s technical team is in town to conduct feasibility studies in the areas of collaboration highlighted in the previous MoU signed. However, Proton says it is not aware of any intentions by PSA to take up a stake in Proton, while officials from PSA itself has mentioned that there are no intentions to take up a stake, merely to partner up for doing business together in the region. Since PSA Peugeot Citroen already has a preexisting partnership with the Naza Group, there seems to be some form of “tag team” of local and foreign partners in place here with Naza and PSA. If not so, then PSA’s collaboration with Proton could be for the Citroen brand instead - remember PSA Peugeot Citroen doesn’t necessarily mean Peugeot! - Source

Along side it’s Lion-badged brother the Peugeot 4007, the new Citroen C-Crosser SUV has been announced by Citroen, and is set to go on sale from Summer 2007 onwards, similiar to the 4007’s sales date. The Citroen C-Crosser adopts the name of Citroen’s C-Crosser Concept 4X4 shown at the 2001 Frankfurt Motor Show.

Power is provided by the same 2.2 liter common rail turbodiesel with particulate filters mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox. The 4X4 transmission has the normal three options of 2WD, 4WD and a locked mode for low speed low grip conditions.

A feature I didn’t mention in the 4007 post - the tailgate opens in two sections. This makes it easier to load bulky objects into the boot. The lower part is able to support up to 200kg, allowing it to double up as an al fresco seat, perfect for owners with a love of outdoor activities.

BTW, have been trying to blog more often, but it’s very hard to post when most posts require photos, this means I have to grab them from the press sources which are huge because they’re also for print media, resize, upload, all of this can be done conveniently with a broadband connection. But what do you know, when the Raya holidays started, Streamyx decided to take a break as well, leaving me with no choice but to use an unlimited GPRS package which is only sufficient for e-mailing and text downloads. Streamyx has been down for 4 days now.

Is anyone from TM reading my site?

Related Posts:
Peugeot 4007 announced by Peugeot

Click here to read the rest of Citroën C-Crosser SUV announced

After rumours of talks between PSA Peugeot Citroen and Proton surfaced back in May 2006, we can finally see some results with Proton and Peugeot having signed a letter of intent in France to study possible co-operation between the two companies last Friday on the September 15th 2006. The evaluation is expected to reach a result on January 1 2007, which is when the pact will expire, unless extended.

Possible co-operation would focus mainly on the ASEAN region but could include other regions as well, and would involve product development, manufacturing, quality initiatives, vendor development, contract assembly and distribution. For PSA Peugeot Citroen, it could possibly result in the increase of Peugeot and Citroën vehicles sales in Malaysia, local assembly of PSA Peugeot Citroen vehicles in Proton’s assembly lines as well as make Malaysia PSA Peugeot Citroen’s hub for ASEAN operations.

PSA Peugeot Citroen is not foreign to partnerships with other companies. They currently have a joint venture with Toyota for small cars (the Peugeot 107, the Citroen C1 and the Toyota Aygo are the same car), a joint venture with Mitsubishi for SUVs (Peugeot 4007 based on Mitsubishi Outlander), engine partnerships with BMW (2nd generation new MINI’s engine is a project between BMW and PSA Peogeot Citroen), as well as other partnerships with Fiat, and Seat. All these partnerships function without cross-shareholding.

This is not the first time PSA Peugeot Citroen and Proton have dealed together. The old Proton Tiara was based on the Citroen AX. Sad to say, Proton’s first foray into the small car market was pretty much a flop.

A question that comes to mind is - what will happen to the pre-existing relationship between Naza and Peugeot? Previously, Naza Group managing director Tan Sri SM Nasimuddin SM Amin said Naza had plans to turn its new Penang plant into an exclusive production facility dedicated entirely to the Peugeot marque, and was bidding for rights to manufacture other Peugeot cars.

Related Posts:
Naza wants to manufacture more Peugeots
Proton partnership with PSA Peugeot Citroen
PSA Peugeot Citroen confirms talks
Proton, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Volkswagen

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