The recent unveiling of the Citroen e-C3 and its focus on affordability made everyone wonder if the Stellantis brand will become the equivalent of Renault Group’s Dacia. When asked about this matter, Citroen CEO, Thierry Koskas, admitted that while they will be competing with Dacia in certain segments, the market positioning of the Citroen brand is different.
The Citroen boss spoke with our colleagues in Autoweek during the presentation of the e-C3. Koskas explained that Citroen is a mainstream brand of Stellantis, just like Fiat. Opel and Peugeot sit slightly higher on the ladder, but still below the trio of premium Stellantis brands including DS, Alfa Romeo, and Lancia.
When asked about a possible rivalry with Dacia, the Citroen CEO said: “You are now comparing us with a brand that we have a lot of respect for. The difference between Dacia and Citroën is that we are a brand with a hundred years of history. We also have other core values, namely comfort, simplicity, sustainability, and courage. Cars should be affordable for everyone as much as possible, but we also make larger models such as the C5 Aircross and C5 X. The positioning of Citroen as a brand is therefore not the same as that of Dacia. We compete with Dacia with some models, but not with all.”
When talking about Dacia-rivaling models in Citroen’s range, Koskas likely refers to the new C3/e-C3 supermini and the upcoming successor of the C3 Aircross B-SUV. The family-friendly C3-based model was teased with a 7-seater layout, proposing an indirect rival of the Dacia Jogger crossover estate.
More: Dacia’s Success Proves That People Like Simple, Affordable Cars; Could It Work In The U.S.?
Back to the Citroen e-C3, the model will arrive in 2024 with a range of 320 km (199 miles) and a starting price of €23,300 ($24,643) undercutting the upcoming Renault 5 and VW ID.2 electric supermini rivals. Furthermore, Citroen promised an even cheaper €19,990 ($21,133) version set to debut in 2025 with a range of 200 km (124 miles), plus a petrol-powered C3 that could be even cheaper than that.
Koskas said that the Citroen e-C3 is “most certainly a response to the Chinese offensive“. This sounds similar to what the Fiat CEO, Olivier Francois, recently promised about the upcoming Fiat Panda which will be closely related to the Citroen e-C3 sharing the same underpinnings. The Citroen boss credited the “great work of their engineers” for succeeding in their goal of making an EV that can compete with rivals from China in terms of pricing while being manufactured in Europe (Slovakia). Note that the cheaper but also less powerful and smaller Dacia Spring is produced in China, which makes it vulnerable to potential EU-imposed tariffs for Chinese EV imports.
Setting aside the Spring, Dacia is reportedly working on a more direct rival to the Citroen e-C3, in the face of the next-generation Sandero Stepway which is rumored to get a fully electric version. The zero-emission Romanian supermini is expected to debut around 2027, as a budget version of the upcoming Renault 5 and Nissan Micra siblings.
