From Sao Paulo – The Double Chevron brand presented in advance the new Citroen C3 Aircross that will be launched at the end of the year in 5 and 7-seater versions. Within the framework of this presentation, we spoke with Gabriel Cordo Miranda, Country Manager of Peugeot, Citroen and DS, about this new vehicle that for now has not been announced in terms of equipment levels or engines.

What expectations do you have with the new Citroen C3 Aircross?

We have huge expectations, we believe that it will be an undoubted commercial success, since customers are not going to find an alternative. Here you will find a unique proposal, which may or may not work for you, but there will be no other similar one.

Just as they did with the C3, they also said that the C3 Aircross will be an accessible vehicle, how do you make an accessible vehicle with these characteristics?

It has to do with the conception, with the initial stage of a new car, engineering, design and the platform where you are going to manufacture it and the number of parts that you are going to use. You can conceive to be a luxury car or a car to be accessible. It can be low cost or smart, we say that this is intelligent accessibility, since it seeks to have competitive prices without losing its look, technology, ride comfort or versatility as the 7-seater proposal has.

What kind of customer do you see buying a C3 Aircross both a 5 and a 7 seater?

I think the 5 and 7 seater C3 Aircross is the model that speaks most to the family customer. The family customer who has two children or more will be the first purchase option because they will find when they go out shopping and see the boxes to check off their expectations that completes them all within the B SUVs. Being a large segment, you find customers with different characteristics, but the family customer is the one who is going to buy a C3 Aircross.

How do you see the Citroen brand with these vehicles already established in sales?

Since the C-Cubo projects are going to be imported from Brazil, for this we need the import conditions in Argentina to allow us to explore the sales power and not be limited with what we can import, which is what is happening with the c3. We sell what we can bring, but the capacity is triple or quadruple what we could sell. If the conditions in the country adjust or we do things to be able to have more exchange currencies, we see Citroen’s market share doubling, reaching 6 or 7%.

Today you don’t have the focus on imported vehicles from outside the zone?

Today it is limited and it is not a priority, because Brazilian vehicles are models from another range and you can import more.

These three vehicles from the C-Cubo Project are going to be manufactured in Brazil. Is there a possibility that they will manufacture a new silhouette in El Palomar?

Technically it is possible, because today we are working in two shifts and they can work three, but we are not announcing anything in that regard.

Do we have Partner and Berlingo for a while?

We are doing well, if one is based on indicators that distributors want to buy, fleet customers and savings plan, today we cannot keep up with the demand, and today we want to continue with Partner and Berlingo.