Imported C4 Picasso to hit China market in year end

Shanghai, July 21 (Gasgoo.com) While Dongfeng Citroen is pushing forward the Chinese production of C4 C-Quatre, another model derived from the C4 platform, the stylish C4 Picasso MPV as displayed at the 2008 Beijing auto show in April, will be imported to the China market later this year, said xinhuanet.com today.

Sources said that the new C4 Picasso will be imported by Citroen (China) for sale to China by the end of this year, and the car will sell to Chinese customers for about 300,000 yuan ($44,000). The 1.6L and 2.0L Picasso models locally built by Dongfeng Citroen sell at prices between 125,800 yuan and 153,800 yuan, but their sales in China in the first half of this year did not exceed 3,000 units.

Analysts said that it may be due to the low sales of Chinese-made Picasso cars that Citroen (China) has decided to import the new version of this MPV for the China market. But in response to this analysis, Dongfeng Citroen said that the locally made model is Xsara Picasso while the imported model is C4 Picasso based on the C4 platform. Therefore they are quite different Picasso models and their prices are different.

The C4 Picasso to be imported to China is a seven-seat 2.0L MPV model (Grand C4 Picasso), to join the current Citroen lineup of three imported models in China including C6, C5, C4 sedans and coupes. Citroen (China) aims to sell 1,000 units of its imported cars in China this year.

The spacious Grand C4 Picasso (4.59m x 1.83m x 1.66m), slightly larger than other seven-seat compact MPVs like the Mazda5 and Renault Grand Scenic, was named by Chinese media "an MPV model of the best design" at the 2008 Beijing auto show.