Citrn shows first pics of new C3 supermini

29/06/09

Small car with the big windscreen will reach UK showrooms early next year

This is Citrn’s new C3 supermini, which you’ll be able to buy early next year. As you can see from the pictures, the car will have a new windscreen that will extend from the top of the bonnet to finish far back in the roof, behind the driver’s and front passenger’s heads.

The car keeps a body shape that’s a development of the present C3, which has been on sale for six years, and it retains the current car’s compact width and length. It will also, says Citrn, weigh no more than the current car.

From launch, a 90bhp diesel version will be available that runs clean enough to emit 99g/km of CO2 – that’s low enough to qualify for no-cost road tax. However Ford already undercuts it with its Fiesta Econetic, emitting just 98g/km, while ‘green’ versions of the next Volkswagen Polo – due to launch around the same time as the C3 – promise to do even better.

Citrn, however will see new engines available from 2011 which, combined with new Stop-Start economy systems, promise to reduce emissions below 90g/km. Meanwhile, new generation petrol engines will by then break the 100g/km barrier.