10 ❚ CITROËN❚
Citroën used to make the most ambitious, most modern, most innovative cars in the world. It’s now getting some of that spirit back
Theworld needs a Citroën right now. We need a bold car maker to set a new course for car engineering. Today’s numerous challenges, from carbon to congestion to cost, need the think-different audacity that once epitomised France’s greatest car maker.
From its birth in 1919 to the mid ’70s – until it was subsumed by Peugeot – Citroën cars never followed convention. They challenged it. Rather than stepping cautiously, they strode boldly.
The apogee was the DS, the most modern car ever built, and still probably the world’s most streamlined-looking saloon. Into a post-war world of Morris Minors and Austin A30s, of Ford Consuls and Anglias, landed this futuristic French car with its spaceship style and step-ahead technology.
Now, the world needs another big leap, to more striking and space-efficient designs. To new technologies that make electric cars as practical as petrol cars, and truly sustainable. To make them lighter and less costly.
André Citroën would surely have welcomed the challenge. So, too, would the architects of the DS: sculptor turned car designer Flaminio Bertoni and former aviation engineer André Lefèbvre.
Today Citroën is sadly a shadow of its former greatness. But at least, under Stellantis, it has rediscovered some of its mojo. The Ami is a fresh slant at urban EV driving. It’s small, light and has a commercial model as unusual as its style. The Oli concept (see CAR November) similarly challenges the EV status quo.
And now comes the C5X. It’s the latest big Citroën, the most recent in a noble line that goes back to the Traction Avant, the sublime DS and the CX. Roland Barthes would hardly describe it as ‘a superlative object’ that had ‘fallen from the sky’ as he did the DS. But equally this is no me-too car. Intriguingly, it’s a cross between an SUV and a fastback estate in its proportions and concept. It has hydraulic bump stops and active dampers for a cushioned ride. It prioritises comfort and relaxed driving over frenzied sportiness, as a good Citroën should. There are big and softly cushioned chairs and loads of rear legroom, another Citroën signature.
Our test car is the top-spec plug-in hybrid and, as with all good
TRACTION AVANT
YEARS BUILT 1934-1956; 333,405 made
POW ERTR AIN1.3-litre four-cylinder, 2.9-litre six-cylinder
PERFORMANCE 32-77bhp, 60-80mph
WEIGHT 1025-1170kg
C5X
YEARS BUILT 2022-
POW ERTR AIN1.2/1.6-litre four-cylinder, 1.6-litre plug-in hybrid
PERFORMANCE 128-222bhp, 130-145mph
WEIGHT 1905-2185kg
XM
YEARS BUILT 1989-2000; 333,405 made
POW ERTR AIN2.0-litre f
