Following Groupe PSA’s announcement to kickstart the “Push to Pass” product offensive planned for the next five years, Citroën’s new crossover is anticipated to reach assembly by 2018.
Dubbed the C84 project, the crossover is one out of four new models set to be rolled out within the next 18 months. It will be based upon the automaker group’s EMP2 platform, which already underpins the Citroen C4 Picasso and SpaceTourer, as well as the Peugeot 308, 408 and new 3008.
The C84 project will be manufactured in Rennes, France following a €100 million (US$113 million) investment, which will increase the plant’s annual volume from 60,000 units to 100,000 units; the next Peugeot 5008 and Citroën E-Mehari will be built alongside the new crossover at the Rennes plant. The aim is to launch one new car per region, per brand, per year across the Peugeot, Citroën and DS brands.
PSA states that the plant in Rennes was chosen after a study that spanned over several months, which eventually reflected “the performance measures taken by the plant and the commitments made to upgrade operations”. Work on the factory will begin in early 2017 and will complete in 2018.
“The decision to manufacture this new vehicle in Rennes shows that, when stakeholders are committed to working together to secure the future of a manufacturing plant, they can create the performance conditions necessary in a continuous efficiency improvement process,” said Carlos Tavares, chairman of the managing board at PSA.
The “Push to Pass” plan consists of 26 passenger vehicles and eight light commercial vehicles (including a one-tonne pick-up truck) set to be released over the next five years, from which PSA Peugeot Citroën is aiming for a 10% revenue growth by 2018 and an additional 15% by 2021. “Based on our financial reconstruction, we will launch a global product and technology offensive,” Tavares said at the Push to Pass announcement.
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