PSA Peugeot Citroën, after only selling 1300 units of their Mitsubishi-engineered electric cars last year, pledge to do the work themselves and come up with an in-house design next time. Unlike Tesla Motors, who opted for a top-down approach to selling electric cars, the French have decided on the Renault-Nissan approach of tackling the mass market first.
The current electric vehicle sold by the automotive conglomerate is based on the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and is sold as the Peugeot iOn and the Citroën C-Zero. With just 66 horsepower and a range of 150 kilometres, they were a tough car to sell. Even with zero road taxes and emissions, the car would take 7 hours to recharge fully and costs around £25000. For that kind of money, customers in Europe could drive away a top-trim Nissan Leaf, which is considerably larger and capable of a longer range.
PSA Peugeot Citroën CEO Carlos Tavares indicated that the group would also launch a slightly larger Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) built on the EMP2 platform, the backbone of the current Peugeot 308 and Citroën C4 Picasso and of the upcoming 508 and C5. French media suggests that the Citroën DS line of products would be the first to benefit from the new hybrid layout.
