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How Citroen made the C3 a sub-€25,000 EV By using a low-cost LFP battery and reducing customer choice, the Stellantis subsidiary made its e-C3 the lowest cost battery-powered model built and sold in Europe. The Citroen e-C3 at an Ionity charging station in Austria. It takes about 25 minutes to charge the 44-kWh battery from 10 to 80 percent. WEIDEN-AM-SEE, Austria -- Citroen embarked on a ruthless cost-cutting program to bring the new C3 small car to market at less than €25,000 for the full-electric version and less than €15,000 for internal-combustion derivatives, brand CEO Thierry Koskas said. Citroen was able to cut the production cost by about 15 to 20 percent compared with the current C3, which has been on the market since 2016, Koskas said this week at media test drives here in eastern Austria, not far from the Stellantis factory in Trnava, Slovakia, where the C3 is built. Thanks in part to its low-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, the e-C3 is the first sub-€25,000 EV to be built and sold in Europe. It will arrive in showrooms this September, just as the European Commission’s competition authorities are expected to release results of an investigation into Chinese government support for EVs. European automakers are preparing for what some have called a "flood” of inexpensive Chinese EVs. "When we look at how to reduce the production cost of an EV, the first thing we look at is the battery,” Koskas told Automotive News Europe. He said that using nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistry for the e-C3’s 44-kilowatt-hour battery pack would have cost about 20 percent more.  That translates into substantial savings in a car where the battery represents 40 percent of the total cost, he said. "It's quite unique that you have a component that's so important to the total cost of the car,” Koskas said of EVs. Beyond the battery, the C3 is built on Stellantis’ Smart Car platform, a development of the PSA Group CMP architecture, which was first optimized for sales of low-cost cars in India, including a version of the C3. Citroen has also greatly simplified versions of the C3, with only two trim levels and no options except exterior color choice, Koskas said. "It makes the manufacturing very simple,” he said.  Standard equipment was calibrated to offer "everything that the customer needs, but nothing over the top” that they might not use, Koskas said. One unusual offering is a head-up display that is not projected onto the windshield but rather on a small panel underneath. The C3 does not have a conventional instrument panel; the head-up display offers speed and vital functions such as state of charge. The dashboard of the Citroen C3 features a money-saving head-up display projected onto the base of the windshield rather than an instrument cluster. The C3 will compete against just a few lower-cost small cars, notably the Dacia Sandero, the segment leader and Europe’s best-selling car overall through April. Other rivals include the new MG3 and the Suzuki Swift. Later this year Renault will launch the 5, a small EV built in France that will also start at less than €25,000. The base C3 with a 100-hp, 1.2-liter turbocharged gasoline engine starts at €14,990 in France; a 48-volt mild hybrid option, available by early 2025, will be "under €20,000” and the full-electric version with 320 km range starts at €23,300. French buyers will enjoy a €4,000 government bonus on the e-C3, bringing the price to €19,300. Next year, an electric version with a 200 km range will go on sale for less than €19,900.  The gasoline version has CO2 emissions of 129 g/km, while the mild hybrid offers 117 g/km. Koskas said that while that might not seem significant, "every little bit helps” for fleet emissions, especially with a big stepdown coming in 2025. "The advantage is not that great, but it’s still an advantage, especially in countries where there is a threshold for emissions penalties” including France, he said. Unlike some EVs, the e-C3 has no "frunk" for cargo, as its 83-kW electric motor fills the underhood space. The EU’s new emissions threshold for 2025 will be just less than 94 g/km on the WLTP scale, about 15 percent less than the 2020-21 limit of 95 g/km on the old NEDC scale. In addition, there is an emissions bonus for automakers that sell more than 25 percent zero-emission cars: They can get up to a 5 percent break on fleet emissions. Koskas said the new targets come at a fortuitous time for Citroen, which at the moment has just a few EVs in its lineup, the e-C4 compact hatchback and e-C4X compact coupe, in addition to full-electric passenger vans.  In the next year, however, Citroen will add the e-C3, the e-C3 Aircross small SUV and the next-generation C5 Aircross, which will have a full-electric option. Koskas is aiming for about 25 percent full-electric sales. "That means that basically any car we sell will have a full-electric version, so that's a game changer for us,” he said. "Particularly with the e-C3 because it’s such a big seller for us. Many people who aren't thinking of going electric may do so with the e-C3.” In addition to selling more EVs, Citroen faces the challenge of following up one of its biggest hits with the current C3, which registered 69,129 sales in the first quarter of this year in Europe, or about half of all Citroen's sales in Europe, and ranks fourth in the segment.  Koskas said the C3, which is built on a pre-Stellantis PSA Group platform "should be a marketing case study" because it has been a consistently strong seller for the past seven years. Over the life span of the C3, its sales curve has been absolutely flat, he said. "Normally market share drops, then you do a face-lift, then it drops again," he said. "It's amazing. It shows that the C3 was really well developed and designed."   (ANE)    

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