Does anyone remember the MPV? The multi-purpose vehicle was once the vehicle of choice for family drivers looking for extra space and practicality, with cars like the Ford S-Max and the Citroen Xsara populating car parks up and down the country.
How things have changed. Production of the Xsara only ended in 2012, but by then Nissan’s Qashqai had established the compact SUV as a family favourite, simply because of its innovative and modern design. And a welcome development it was.
Today, the compact SUV segment is one of the most competitive in Europe, with the Hyundai Tucson consistently remaining the best-selling car on the Irish market.
After the Xsara, Citroen was left in the doldrums as other manufacturers piled into the family market, and it watched its Peugeot stablemate, appearing to receive more of the love in terms of design and innovation, especially in recent years.
With the new C5 Aircross, which comes with fully electric and plug-in hybrid power options, Citroen is hoping to make a comeback. It has been slowly doing so with the C3 - now in second position in battery EV sales in Europe - and the bigger C5 carries the weight of expectation.
However, it arrives at a challenging time of increased competition for EV sales with the arrival of well-priced and well-equipped cars from Chinese manufacturers - this month sees the arrival of another Chinese company onto the Irish market - Leapmotor, which is offering a compact SUV and a smaller, and has more in the pipeline.
As was necessary, Citroen has introduced a new and fresh design language for the C5 Aircross. It is 16 cm longer than the current version and has a ground clearance of 190 mm, giving it a pretty solid profile on its 20" wheels.
There are other cues, such as the absence of faux chrome, and the designers have ignored the current trend for a light bar at the front, meaning the Citroen logo sits centrally without a connection to the lights.
What struck me most, however, was the improvement in the interior. There are now much more appealing quilt-design seats, and there is plenty of space.
The finish might still not match what is on offer from Peugeot, but the C5 is now brighter and more comfortable - reclining rear seats being one impressive option.
There are now, however, only two seats in the rear instead of the three in the previous version, which will come as a disappointment to parents who need those three seats with ISOFIX child seat fittings.
The boot is an impressive 650 litres, with much more space available when the rear seats are folded.
And the C5 has one major improvement that has improved its interior considerably - a 13" infotainment screen that finally brings it nearer the competition than other cars in the Stellantis Group (Citroen’s parent company), which have been saddled with fiddly and often small screens that provide function but little appeal. These screens are a big selling point in most cars these days and are something that can heavily influence a customer’s choice.
This screen has clarity and is easy to navigate and has a Tom navigation system.
We had a brief enough drive in the car, but it was of sufficient duration to remind us that Citroen has been clever to preserve its air suspension system and improve interior sound levels, which were already pretty impressive. The ride and comfort levels are impressive.
There are two battery options for the fully-electric version - 73 kWh and 97 kWh - and Citroen is claiming ranges of 520 kms and 680 kms, respectively. The usual caveats about claimed ranges apply until we see what real-world conditions yield.
There is also a claimed 100 kms range for city EV driving on the plug-in version, a 15 per cent improvement in consumption and an increase of 50 per cent in that city driving capacity. The PHEV uses a 1.6 litre petrol engine.
Given that the C5 Crossover is in a highly competitive segment, a lot comes down to price. The price of this car hasn’t been fully decided yet, but, when it arrives at the end of the year, it really needs to price-match as much as possible, and that means an entry-level price of probably below €40,000.
That price would put it appreciably below Peugeot’s 3008 electric, for example, but Citroen needs to have that kind of separation.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
