Citroën C-Elysée


Citroën C-Elysée is a compact car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën since 2012, introduced at the Paris Motor Show the same year. It is closely related to the Peugeot 301, launched the same year. It was facelifted in November 2017.

Marketing and production

Its sales were targeted in the first instance in Eastern Europe, South America and North Africa, but it was also sold in Spain, Portugal, Greece, and since March 2016, in Italy, Germany and France, three of Europe's largest car markets.
From 2014, it began production in China, as a successor to the Chinese market Citroën Elysée, by the joint venture company Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile.

Technical details

The C-Elysée shares its dimensions with the 301, and is available with 1.2 VTi 72 hp, 1.6VTi 115 hp and 1.6HDi 90 hp engines, and 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmissions.
It is slightly larger than all of the other contemporary subcompact car-based models from the European, Japanese and South Korean manufacturers, being equal only to the Honda City.

Motorsport

In 2012, Citroën announced plans to enter the World Touring Car Championship. The team transformed a DS3 WRC into a laboratory vehicle to help with early development, while the engine was an evolution of their WRC engine which had been used in the WRC since 2011. Citroën started developing the car for the new TC1 regulations, which were brought forward a year early in 2014 to expedite the entry of Citroën into the championship. The introduction of the new regulations a year earlier than planned gave a seven month development headstart to Citroën over the other manufacturers. This large development advantage combined with a big budget and a strong driver line-up made Citroën the clear favourite going into the first season of the new regulations in 2014. Citroën would go on to win most of the races that season as well as the manufacturers' title, while José María López won the drivers' title. The team would repeat this feat in 2015 and 2016, before the factory team left the series at the end of 2016. A number of Citroëns were still raced by other teams in 2017, but were outpaced by the Hondas and the Volvos.