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In the later stage of epidemic prevention and control, there will be a wave of new cars on the market in June, including the new Citroen C3L. According to media sources, the Dongfeng Citroen C3L will go on sale on June 8, a brand new model for the Chinese market, where French brands are at a critical moment of "life and death". As the representative of the French family, the Citroen brand urgently needs popular models to reverse the embarrassing situation in China.

This time Citroen brought a "special model" to China-Citroen C3L, the first place to show "sincerity" is its appearance. According to the official description, the car is located in the crossover hatchback SUV, which has the body of a hatchback while maintaining the chassis height of the SUV, but will such a cross-border car really be popular with Chinese consumers?

For example, GAC Honda GE Shitu is a veritable cross-border car with a price of about 400000, which is the most expensive joint venture model under Honda, but it ended up in production because of its high price and small audience. Of course, Citroen C3L pricing will not be so high, if the appearance to meet the needs of consumers, there is still room for development.

From the appearance, the front face of C3L C3L is basically the same as the C3-XR, the central LOGO extends two chrome-plated decorative bars, the headlights are placed on the extension line of LOGO, and the grille uses a small honeycomb shape, which is also the latest family-style design style of Dongfeng Citroen.

In terms of size, the length, width and height of the car body are 4504/1748/1513mm and the wheelbase is 2655mm. However, the most prominent is its ground distance reached 175mm, such ground distance with the car body is really awkward, seems to be forced to integrate the characteristics of SUV and car.

In terms of power, the Citroen C3L is equipped with a 1.2T three-cylinder engine codenamed HN11. As we all know, Chinese consumers have always had a certain "prejudice" against the three-cylinder engine, and the three-cylinder engine market in the Chinese market has basically been cool, but the legal brands do not believe in evil and still carry the three-cylinder engine on the latest models. Isn't this nakedly pushing Citroen to the edge?

Look at the performance of this three-cylinder engine, HN11 1.2T engine maximum power for 116Ps, maximum torque of 190N ·m, from the data point of view is not good, Fox 1.0T maximum power 125Ps, Buick Yinglang 1.0T maximum power 125Ps, Geely colorful 1.0T maximum power 136Ps, so that even the C3L equipped with three-cylinder engine does not have any advantage, not to mention the resistance of Chinese consumers to the three-cylinder engine.

In all respects, the Citroen C3L does not have the characteristics of popular models. Strange alternative styling design may not be accepted by consumers, coupled with consumer exclusion of the three-cylinder engine, Citroen C3L is very difficult to win. Of course, if there is a price compromise, there may still be some vitality, but given the situation of Citroen in the Chinese market, even if there is a price compromise, it will be difficult to be recognized by consumers.

Sales show that Citroen sold only 51477 vehicles in China in 2019 and only 4582 from January to April 2020. Among them, Elysee sold 661 vehicles in April, while C6 and C4L sold only 42 and 11. For SUV, C3-XR sold only 1121 vehicles, while Tianyi C5 and Yunyi C4 sold 351 and 19.

In recent years, Citroen has been in dire straits. It is not too late to enter the Chinese market, but it has screwed up a brand with romantic characteristics. At present, the DS brand has been abandoned by both shareholders, Renault has officially withdrawn from the Chinese market, as to whether Citroen will become the next Renault, maybe this car can give us an answer.

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