Citroën targets market share growth with fully refreshed line-up

Citroen is aiming to grow its market share this year as it launches a completely renewed product portfolio in 2025, writes Andrew Ryan.

At its recent dealer conference, Citroen UK managing director Greg Taylor declared “Citroen is back” – a message reinforced by the brand at last week’s media launch of the all-new C3 Aircross and refreshed C4 and C4X range.

Citroen last year had a 1.56% overall market share in the UK, 0.07 percentage points lower than in 2023. Historically, its market share has been larger: in 2015, for example, it was 3.04%.

He told AM-Online: “When we say we’re back, more than anything we are talking about the opportunity to re-establish Citroen’s position in the UK. We know we can deliver stronger market share that we’ve been able to in the past couple of years.

“Citroen has got an incredible history and has been an incredibly innovative brand. It’s bought a lot of world firsts into the automotive industry, but ultimately the range we have been offering has aged.”

As an example, he said the outgoing C3 was launched more than eight years ago, with the C3 Aircross following around a year later.

Their replacements will both go on sale later this year, as will the new C4 and C4X ranges, while the brand will also launch a new C5 Aircross in late summer.

Taylor said: “We are now in a position which doesn’t really happen in the automotive industry where we have, in essence, the full passenger car line-up being refreshed in the space of 12 months.

“We are now at the cutting-edge in terms of a design linearity that has not really existed before because the development times of cars are so long that it is very rare to see all of a car line-up have the same design ethos running through it.”

Taylor said Citroen is also “bringing innovation back”. Citroen’s Advanced Comfort Suspension, for example, will be available in the brand’s B-SUV offering for the first time, while battery-electric, hybrid and petrol powertrains will be available across the range.

He added: Ultimately, this gives us an opportunity to come to market with a full suite of cars, a full suite of powertrains, incredibly competitively priced and positioned in the market, with a really rich specification across the board.”

Taylor said the refreshed line-up will help the Stellantis Group meet its 2025 ZEV Mandate obligations, after it success in complying with the 2024 requirements.

He added: “Obviously, all OEMs are in consultation with the Government in terms of where the ZEV Mandate is going to head, but one thing Stellantis has always been clear on is that we will meet our obligations under the directive that in place at the time,” he says.

“From a Citroen perspective, the benefit we have this year is that we have a full new line-up. We have battery electric options across that line-up and the opportunity for us to contribute to the overall Stellantis achievement is increased this year as a consequence.”