Launching a new car is an arduous journey for all manufacturers, who have to ensure that the thousands of parts that make up the car work together properly and sustainably. For the launch of the new C3 Aircross, Citroën travelled no less than half a million kilometres in South America to ensure development on all types of terrain.
Already on sale in India, the new C3 Aircross will soon make its debut in South American markets, where it will contribute to the development of the C3 brand. The new C3 Aircross is the second vehicle in the C-Cubed programme, which aims to offer a range of three cars that are designed, developed and manufactured as close as possible to the consumer in order to be accessible. The C3 Aircross, sold in India, has undergone specific development in the countries of the region, while the brand's new compact SUV, sold in Latin America, has undergone intensive development in the region.
In total, with the support of a team of more than 350 people, the new Citroën C3 Aircross prototypes have covered more than half a million kilometres in different environments, including high temperatures, low humidity, extreme cold and varying altitudes. This work is essential to ensure that the SUV always offers the best performance and robustness, regardless of the region of South America in which it is deployed.
All these tests start on a computer, using software that can reproduce many driving conditions. The results are then transferred to the region's most advanced simulators, where engineers can understand the behaviour of the brand's new SUV even before the first prototype becomes a reality. At this stage alone, the equivalent of more than 14,000 hours of simulations have been carried out in over 250 tests!
The new C3 Aircross is then tested on a variety of vehicles throughout the region to validate the virtual tests and ensure that it meets and exceeds all Citroën quality, comfort, performance and robustness indices. All scenarios that the customer might encounter are evaluated, taking into account the challenging infrastructure that exists in many regions of South America.
At the same time, the Stellantis and Citroën development team is making all the preparations for the production of the latest Citroën SUV at the Porto Real industrial complex, where the new C4 Cactus and C3 SUVs are already produced. This synergy allows a high degree of localisation of the models since their launch, making the product even more accessible. The new Citroën C3 Aircross will soon arrive in Latin America, offering a unique combination of robustness, space, accessibility and innovation. As well as being the only B-SUV with up to seven seats, it will offer unprecedented versatility thanks to elements such as the exclusive roof ventilation system and the largest boot among its direct competitors.
In conclusion, Citroën's long and rich history gives it a wealth of experience that enables it to offer new cars while minimising the risk of failure. In any case, to develop the new C3 Aircross, the brand covered more than 500,000 km in Latin America alone, and at least as many for the Indian version. The brand will do the same with the next version of the C3 Aircross, which will be marketed in Europe from 2024, with prototypes that will soon hit the road to continue and finalise their development before its presentation, which should take place in Europe during the second quarter of 2024.