Citroën C5 Aircross: Future Electric

Stellantis is currently investing 160 million euros in the capital of Brittany to prepare the factory in Rennes for the successor to the Citroën C5 Aircross. Among other things, an area for battery assembly and a facility for plastic injection molding are to be built there. The company told the news agency Reuters.

The new electric car will run on the future STLA Medium platform, which was announced in 2021 for vehicles with a range of up to 700 kilometers. The new model, codenamed CR3, will be the successor to the current C5 Aircross. However, Stellantis likes to keep a combustion engine option open for Southern and Eastern Europe (e.g., with the Jeep Avenger, which is still available as a gasoline model in some markets). When asked if the new model might be offered "not only as an electric model," CEO Carlos Tavares explained: "In principle, no."

The current generation of the C5 Aircross is available with gasoline or diesel engines as well as in a plug-in hybrid version. However, it has never been able to completely prevail against other models across Europe and only achieved marginal success in some countries. 

Whether the newly announced model will be a direct successor or an entirely new model with a different focus remains to be seen. So far, it is only being referred to as an SUV – although Citroën can take more liberties here than other brands.

What does that mean?

Stellantis aims to sell only electric cars in Europe from 2030 onwards. Within the newly restructured group, Citroën, along with Fiat, is assigned the role of "entry-level brands," so the new C5 Aircross could indeed be designed to be more practical, affordable, and fun than its predecessor. Because it can't get much cheaper as an electric vehicle.