Citroën C3: new and electric in 2023

The Citroën C3 is a striking model within Stellantis. That has less to do with the design than with the technology of the car. The current Citroën C3 was presented in 2016 and still shares its technical basis with cars such as the previous generation Peugeot 208. So no modern CMP platform that can also handle electric powertrains in addition to combustion engines. The C3 went under the knife in 2020 and the model is now more than six years old. Autocar confirms what was already expected: the Citroën C3 will be completely renewed in 2023.

The completely new Citroën C3 will be the first car of the brand to receive the recently presented new logo, which harks back to the first Citroën logo. There may also be design influences from the recently presented Oli study model to the C3. With its generation change, the Citroën C3 exchanges its current PF1, called and quite aging platform for the CMP base, a platform that you know from many other compact hatchbacks and crossovers from Stellantis. Think of the Peugeot 208, 2008, Opel Corsa, Mokka, DS3 and even the Citroën C4 and C4X. Elsewhere in the world there is even a Citroën called C3 which is on the CMP platform, but that car is not intended for the European market.

The new Citroën C3 will also be an electric version. It is expected to immediately receive the renewed electric powertrain that Peugeot recently installed in the renewed e-208 and DS in the facelifted and DS 3 renamed DS 3 Crossback. That means: a 51 kWh battery pack (of which 48.1 kWh net), a 156 hp electric motor and a range of about 400 kilometers.

Counting from 1983, the Citroën C3 is the best-selling Citroën car in the Netherlands after the BX and the C1. More than 85,000 of these have been sold since 2002, spread over three generations. In 2003 the C3 had its peak year. Of the then first C3 ever, 8,225 units left the Dutch dealers in that year.