Citroen is set to add a panel van version of their C3 to cater for the commercial market.

Since the demise of the Nissan NP200 a number of manufacturers have thrown their hat into the ring to secure a slice of that segment.

Based on the Indian-built Citroen C3, the conversion will be done by RMA Automotive South Africa, Stellantis’ global conversion partners.

In South Africa, Stellantis has Citroen, Fiat, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Opel, Peugeot and Abarth under its umbrella.

The C3 panel van will compete against the Suzuki Eeco 1.2, Hyundai Grand i10 Premium Cargo, Renault Triber 1.0 Express, Kia Picanto 1.0 LX Runner and the recently launched Mahindra 3XO.

Homologation

“We’ve just completed the homologation so we’ll be coming to market soon,” said Charl Timms, commercial director for Stellantis SA at a breakfast briefing hosted by Citroen Global CEO Thierry Koskas.

“We do see potential there. If you look at panel vans last year, in a market that was down 3.5%, the van segment of the market was actually up, almost 8 000 cars against 4 900 the year before.

“With some of the competitors that have exited the market we’re seeing other competitors coming in to serve a growing need. If you look at pharmaceuticals, courier companies and Takealot, they don’t have large cargoes that need transporting.

“We’ll give more details later, but we’re excited at the potential in the market, not just in traditional corporate fleet customers but also with smaller SMEs.

Advantage

“I think our advantage is our 1.2-litre engine. From a kW output some of the competitor engines are small so ours will handle heavier loads easier,” he said.

As a reminder, the C3 is powered by a 1.2-litre three cylinder engine with 61kW and 115Nm of torque driving the front wheels via a five-speed manual transmission.

Pricing for the Citroen C3 1.2 Plus is R249,900 and R259,900 for the Citroen C3 1.2 Max.

Stellantis is still looking at pricing for the proposed panel van and will be known closer to launch.