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    French carmaker Groupe PSA Citroen planning lighter retail presence

    Synopsis

    Citroen has been popularising its format titled phygital -- a portmanteau of physical and digital -- to signify its technological advances in showroom experience for customers. Citroen is expected to offer kiosks with large screens showing how the cars would look with different accessories, and offer options on insurance, service contracts, accessories and others on a digital platform accessible across devices.

    Untitled-9
    The Citroen brand reentered India officially in April this year.
    CHENNAI: French carmaker Citroen, part of 74-billion-Euro Groupe PSA, is working on a lighter retail presence distinguished by smaller but digitally enabled showrooms across key metropolises ahead of its first vehicle launch next year, according to Roland Bouchara, Senior Vice-President-Sales and Marketing for Citroen India.

    The French company will begin with the C5 Aircross SUV, launching in September next year and will compete with the Volkswagen Tiguan and Hyundai Tucson in the premium SUV segment, a market growing significantly in India.

    Citroen will begin with 10 retail outlets across the country. Citroen has been popularising its format titled phygital -- a portmanteau of physical and digital -- to signify its technological advances in showroom experience for customers. Bouchara, who met journalists here in Chennai on Wednesday, said the real estate requirements for its dealers would be far lesser compared to the current, traditional demands of car dealers.

    Citroen is expected to offer kiosks with large screens showing how the cars would look with different accessories, and offer options on insurance, service contracts, accessories and others on a digital platform accessible across devices. "Digitisation will be a key enabling feature of ours," said Bouchara.

    The Citroen brand reentered India officially in April this year. It had sealed a partnership with the CK Birla group in January 2017 to manufacture gearboxes and engines from a factory in Hosur along the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border, and vehicle assembly plant in Northern Tamil Nadu in Thiruvallur district. Citroen has also opened its India Technical Centre in Chennai. The Hosur plant, inaugurated in November last year, has begun exporting gearboxes to Europe already, said Bouhara. The targeted annual capacity for the vehicle Assembly plant north of Chennai is 100,000 units a year.

    Citroen is also developing its new car platform C-Cubed, standing for Cool, Comfort and Clever, for future roll outs, "most of which will be in the main stream segment." according to Bouchara. The local manufacturing in India would enable the company reach higher levels of localisation, upward of 90%, predicted Bouchara.

    The Groupe PSA has evolved a strategy to have one pure-electric, or a hybrid, variant for all its segments by 2025.


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