Launched in 2018, the Citroën C5 Aircross quickly met its audience to rank second in sales of C-segment SUVs behind the Peugeot 3008. After experiencing a marked slowdown with the Covid and the shortage of components, the C5 Aircross rebounded sharply in the second half to become the brand's second sale in France.
Presented at the start of the year, the restyling of the C5 Aircross was extensive with a total redesign of the front end as well as different rear lights and a modified cabin with the introduction of a 10-inch touch screen, category standard. Due to the shortage of components which blocked production almost the entire month of March, the launch of the restyling could not take place until June, but the effect was very clear on sales of the large SUV from the brand.
Benefiting from an improvement on the front of the shortage, Citroën was therefore able to produce the C5 Aircross in large numbers without experiencing untimely stops, which enabled the C5 Aircross to exceed the threshold of 2,000 monthly sales in France and to redo a much of its delay. Thus, some 20,653 C5 Aircross found buyers in France in 2022, a figure down 5.7% over the year, and which allows Citroën's SUV to rank second in sales in the C-segment. SUV but also in second place in sales of the brand in France behind the C3.
Citroën's large SUV is even the vehicle that shows the best performance, or the least sharp drop in this difficult context, with the exception of the C5 X marketed since April. However, this performance could have been even better but, like the other factories of the Stellantis group, the Rennes factory is seeing an accumulation of stocks on its fleets due to a shortage of truck drivers which makes it impossible to deliver vehicles.
This bodes well for 2023 which sees the arrival of a 180 horsepower hybrid version in the range which makes it possible to fill the gap between the 130 internal combustion versions and the 225 hybrid. This new 180 version also makes it possible to slightly lower the selling price and therefore allow more customers to switch to the hybrid.