Citroën Shows Its Many Shades of Green at EVER Monaco
By Michelle Krebs April 2, 2008
MONACO -- With Citroën’s history of avant garde design and outrageous concept cars, we were surprised to find its stand at the EVER Monaco ecological car show as daring as a navy-blue suit.
Though many exhibitors during EVER Monaco, held March 27-30, chose to showcase vehicles loaded with high technology, or huggably cute city cars, Citroën’s surprisingly subdued approach proves alternative energy doesn’t always need a fancy wrapper.
Citroën C4 BioFlex and C5 BioDiesel
The silver C4 BioFlex sedan Citroën displayed in Monaco has been available in France and many other European countries since last summer. The BioFlex can run on regular gasoline, ethanol or a mix of the two.
The BioFlex might be new to Europe but the car’s technology is imported from South America, where it’s been sold for years. The C4’s 100-horsepower 1.6-liter engine comes directly from ethanol-loving Brazil. Flex-fuel vehicles accounted for nearly 80 percent of Citroën’s sales in Brazil in 2007.
Ironically for an environmental car, the BioFlex consumes more fuel than its gas-only counterpart (25 mpg vs. 33 mpg). But the Citroën representatives we spoke to helped explain ethanol’s cost savings in France offset the lower mpg. In France, where gasoline has now crept to more than $7 per gallon, filling up with ethanol will cost you roughly half as much as a tank of gas or diesel. For now there are only around 250 ethanol stations in France, though this is expected to double by the end of 2008.
Next to the C4 BioFlex sat Citroënâs newest eco-friendly offering, the biodiesel-powered C5 Airdream. If you can get past the sickly sweet name, this medium-sized sedan posts some impressive numbers. Under the hood is the well-proven PSA Peugeot Citroën 1.6-liter HDi four-cylinder diesel. In the C5 Airdream the engine pumps out 110 horsepower, and delivers an average of 42 mpg and a low 149 g/km of CO2.
An expanding eco-friendly lineup
These two family-friendly sedans join the brand’s broadening range of environmentally themed vehicles. The current champion, at least from an mpg standpoint, is the little C1 supermini. Powered by a 1.4-liter turbodiesel, the C1 returns up to 68.9 mpg and a very low 109 g/km CO2.
Citroën also offers what it calls a “micro-hybrid†system on its C2 and C3 models. This uses Stop & Start technology, which seamlessly turns off the car’s engine when stuck in traffic or waiting at a red light. Once the gas pedal is pressed, the motor automatically starts up again. Citroën says this system cuts emissions levels 10 to 15 percent during city driving, or in traffic jams.
Natural gas–powered models, full hybrids, additional clean diesels and even fully electric-powered vehicles (currently under development with Monaco-based Venturi Automobiles) will all be represented in Citroën’s future range of vehicles.•
Nick Kurczewski is a Paris-based correspondent working for AutoObserver.
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Good to see that Citroen are staying with the pace expanding their allready excellent range of green cars. On our vehicle lifecycle environmental impact ratings at http://www.whatgreencar.com they normally come out well in each class they compete in.
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