Latest news with #XavierChardon
Hindustan Times
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Hindustan Times
Citroen C3 impacted in Europe over airbag issue, recall on card. Should you be worried too?
A mechanic removes from a Citroen car an airbag module made by the Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata, in a garage in Mulhouse, eastern France. (AFP) Check Offers Citroen has urged the owners of C3 and DS3 models in Europe to stop driving the cars after the latest airbag-related death. The French auto giant on Tuesday told the owners of the C3 and DS3 models on the continent equipped with potentially faulty Takata airbags to immediately cease driving the vehicles. The move comes after a woman was killed in France earlier this month. The immobilisation order has affected around 441,000 units of Citroen C3 and DS3 cars in Europe, on top of the hundreds of thousands already recalled by the OEM since early last year. AFP has reported that a recall is on the cards from the automaker for the potentially impacted models owing to the faulty Takata airbags. This comes as the latest move in a recall scandal dating from 2014, after investigators determined the airbags had caused several deaths because they exploded when deployed in the case of an accident. Earlier this month, the French government urged Citroen, which is currently owned by the Stellantis group, to issue an immediate immobilisation order to the owners of the impacted models after a 37-year-old woman was killed when her car's airbag malfunctioned during an accident, projecting parts into her. This was the 13th death linked to the defective Takata airbags in dozens of accidents in France, reported the news agency. Until now, Citroen had only asked drivers to make appointments to have the airbags replaced, a process carried out in multiple stages since early 2024. However, the move to tell the C3 owners to stop driving the vehicles comes as a new step from the automaker, which is alarming. Speaking about this, Citroen's CEO Xavier Chardon, has reportedly said, "Given the circumstances, we have decided to issue a 'stop drive' to accelerate their repair." Citroen is not the only affected car manufacturer in the world owing to the Takata airbag scandal. Several other major global auto manufacturers, including Volkswagen, Nissan, BMW and Toyota, have also been impacted due to the issue. These auto manufacturers have recalled millions of vehicles containing the Takata airbags. Citroen sells the C3 model in India as well, alongside other cars such as the Basalt, Aircross, eC3, and C5 Aircross. Citroen India is yet to announce such a move for the consumers of C3 in the country. Check out Upcoming Cars in India 2024, Best SUVs in India. First Published Date: 18 Jun 2025, 07:38 AM IST
Local France
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Local France
Airbag deaths in France: Citroen tells C3 and DS3 owners to stop driving cars
It is the latest move in a recall scandal dating from 2014, after investigators determined the airbags had caused several deaths because they exploded when deployed in an accident. The French government earlier this month urged Citroen, part of the Stellantis group, to issue an immediate immobilisation order to owners of the impacted models after a 37-year-old woman was killed when her car's airbag malfunctioned during an accident. It was the 13th death linked to the defective airbags in dozens of accidents in France, according to prosecutors. Until now, Citroen had only asked drivers to make appointments to have the airbags replaced, a process carried out in stages since early 2024, but did not tell them to stop driving the vehicles. 'Given the circumstances, we have decided to issue a 'stop drive' to accelerate their repair,' Citroen CEO Xavier Chardon told AFP. Advertisement The order affects around 441,000 C3 and DS3 vehicles in Europe, on top of the hundreds of thousands already recalled by Citroen since early last year. Other major manufacturers including Volkswagen, Nissan, BMW and Toyota have recalled millions of vehicles containing the airbags.
Auto Express
07-06-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Express
Citroen is plotting a new 2CV – but the risks are huge
Citroen is agonising over whether to bring back the 2CV, the 1940s masterpiece of simplicity that put Europe back on the road after World War II. The recreation of the Renault 5 supermini and Renault 4 hatchback (reinterpreted as an SUV) has got French brand's executives questioning whether to delve into their brand's back catalogue and revive the iconic Citroen 2CV. It's one of the biggest decisions facing new CEO Xavier Chardon – and Auto Express has exclusively spoken to his predecessor Thierry Koskas and head of design Pierre Leclercq to get their views. Reviving the Citroen 2CV – a cheap four-seat car with a long canvas roof, a tiny engine to save fuel and comfortable suspension so it could carry a basket of eggs across a ploughed field – is the subject of intense debate inside Citroen's Paris HQ. And we've waded into the debate by having our illustrator dream up two new takes on the 2CV, one retro, one modern. Citroen's discussions centre on whether that concept of 'four wheels and an umbrella' – set out in the late 1930s – is still highly relevant to car buyers pampered by digital touchscreens, aspiring to premium, assailed by electrification and drowning in choice? And how transferable is the original design to a car that would come out 90 years after its progenitor? Advertisement - Article continues below Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below 'We have a very, very strong heritage, one of the richest in the car industry,' then-Citroen boss Koskas told us. 'We have the 2CV, the Traction Avant, the DS: amazing cars known all over the world. I absolutely agree that one of the big strengths of European brands is their heritage. 'On the product side, we are not taking it as a general direction to do retro design. But I do not exclude that maybe we study and [have] some exploration, we are open to look at that. But at Citroen you will not see all the future cars reminding you of previous models.' Steeped in his brand's history, the Citroen leader for more than two years is well aware of the 2CV's philosophy, arguing 'something super simple that takes you from A to B, with the necessary room – these ideas can feed us in a great way, because it's very much the DNA of the brand.' But will Citroen go beyond philosophy and recreate the 2CV's look? 'You will have people that value a design that is close to a car they used to love in the past. This is the debate,' explains Koskas. 'But there have been successes and failures in [automotive] revivals. Some fail because [companies] don't position the car properly, they seem retro but aren't really, or customers don't really like the car or recognise their love story. So if we were to do it, we would have to be very, very careful and cautious about how we did it.' Advertisement - Article continues below Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below The challenge of bringing back the Citroen 2CV poses more problems than Renault faced with the 5. Its chic supermini concept, launched in 1972 and lasting until 1996, remains deeply relevant and its form is still recognisably contemporary – unlike the 2CV's. Up front, those articulated fenders are distinctively pre-World War II, grafted onto a relatively thin, long nose that followed the form of the inline flat-twin engine. It's a form that makes no sense today – especially if the new Citroen 2CV is electric with no engine to package – and would have to meet crash regulations and place round headlamps at the car's extremities. And slavishly following that horseshoe cockpit's silhouette could mean some difficult trade-offs between occupant and boot space: one reason why VW's 1990s Beetle failed was compromised practicality, particularly rear headroom. Big alloy wheels are critical to muscular modern car design so could Citroen return to the 2CV's faired-in rear wheels? We asked the brand's design director Pierre Leclercq, who pointed out historic cars' narrow tracks and inboard wheels ('great car but look at an E-type's!' he urged) are a far cry from contemporary precisely stuffed arches. 'We have them as flush as possible in today's cars and that's much better. It's super important because this gives a stance on the road,' Leclercq told us. 'Let's say we have to do CX or a GS again, we'd have to make a piece of plastic [over the rear wheel] with an offset of maybe 50mm to do [it].' Advertisement - Article continues below Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below And what's head of design Leclercq's take on the retro design trend? '[Customers like it for] reassurance. I'd like to go back to the past for some projects, it's interesting,' he explained. 'They've done a great job with the Renault 5. Do we want to do it – and as much as they do? It's a good question: why not? Why yes? There's nothing planned, really. But we don't forbid ourselves to try.' Given the Citroen 2CV's design is so of its time and would need dragging into a new millennium, do the risks outweigh the rewards? 'It's a very difficult exercise,' concedes Leclercq. 'You could do a 2CV, you could do an H-type, a CX, we could easily bring back cars from the past. But obviously, the first one coming to everyone's mind is the 2CV, asking 'when do you bring it back?' Mmmm. Let's see.' There's no doubt a team as creative as Leclercq and his designers will have sketches and probably scale models of a reborn Citroen 2CV. Renault's future 5 had already been designed and rejected by a previous management team before the current CEO Luca de Meo arrived in 2020 and green-lit the proposal. Advertisement - Article continues below Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below But the critical question is whether a new 2CV is retro or a reimagining? Citroen's product planners will be trying to estimate demand for different approaches: could a concept car be a way to test the water, we asked Koskas? 'It could be this is what we want to do,' replied the then-CEO. 'The C5 Aircross concept was a show car, which means you are very close to the series model: it's a good marketing strategy. But our next concept car will show ideas, clues, intentions, directions that will inspire the future cars, but probably means you'll never see a Citroen car like that on the road. As we did with the Citroen Oli concept in 2022.' There are many more considerations than the design. Does Citroen have the budget, design and engineering capacity, or does it need to shelve other projects to accommodate a 2CV? Where would the production car be built? And which car platform and drivetrains would it use? The original Citroen 2CV measured 3.82-metres long and stood 1.6m tall, thanks to its jacked-up height for tackling rough terrain. The new C3 hatch isn't much longer, measuring 4m and 1.57m. That suggests the C3's front-wheel-drive 'smart car' platform could provide a usable base, especially given its clever engineering would help keep costs low, as per the 2CV philosophy. Advertisement - Article continues below Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below The Stellantis Group underpinnings unlock a choice of pure electric or three-cylinder hybrid petrol power, which would be mounted transversely and drive the front wheels, like the original car. The extra cylinder and packaging a modern car's ancillaries and crash structure would make matching the Citroen 2CV's nose impossible. So could Citroen find inspiration in the reborn Renault 4, a hatchback originally launched in 1961 to steal 2CV customers with its extra speed and sophistication? Although it was 'not a very nice-looking car,' according to Renault Group design director Laurens van den Acker, who was tasked with updating it. What his team has done so effectively is take a few design cues – the rearmost trapezoidal glass panel, tail-light motif, low-set boot and the graphic of the second-generation's grille – and turn them into a cute SUV. It's a stretch, literally: the reborn 4 is almost 50cm longer than the sixties hatch. But the original 4's two-box shape lends itself to an SUV. Could Citroen do the same and reinvent the 2CV as an SUV? Maybe. But at that point is it actually a 2CV at all? The naysayers within Citroen will argue it's a moot point anyway. Because a 21st century 2CV already exists – it's the Citroen C3, Auto Express's Car of the Year 2024. Advertisement - Article continues below Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below Philosophically it meets the 2CV's brief and remains true to its forebears' values. It's affordable – with the newly announced 34kWh battery, the e-C3 will cost less than £20,000 when it comes on stream in late 2025. It's comfortable: the hydraulic bump stops give it a pillowy ride, although it will struggle to carry a basket of eggs across a ploughed field. And there's clever simplicity, such as the digital driver's binnacle situated at the top of the dash rather than an expensive head-up display projected onto the windscreen. The decision to proceed with a reborn Citroen 2CV is still to be taken. 'When you develop a car, it takes four years,' says Citroen's boss. 'You start the studies and so on, then in the middle you sign a contract when the car is decided, and this is when you can probably start to communicate about the car. We are not at that stage yet.' He agrees the 2CV and new C3 share a philosophy. 'When we talk about daring, comfort, simplicity, affordability, [the C3] is very much in line with what Citroen was in the past,' says Thierry Koskas. But he'll be the first to tell you that today's Citroens are also built on sustainability and daring. The MINI, Fiat 500 and Renault 5 have paved the way. Nothing would be more daring than bringing back the 2CV. Does Citroen dare? And can it possibly win? Over to you, new CEO Xavier Chardon. Are there any classic cars you would like to see receive a modern-day remake? Let us know in the comments section below... 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Time of India
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Citroen appoints Xavier Chardon as CEO, Koskas to leave company
HighlightsCitroen has appointed Xavier Chardon as its new Chief Executive Officer, following the departure of former CEO Carlos Tavares in December. Xavier Chardon returns to Citroen after a career that included significant roles at Volkswagen Group, where he was head of sales for Europe and head of France. Chardon will officially take over the position on June 2, 2023, succeeding Thierry Koskas, who has led the brand since 2023. Citroen has appointed Xavier Chardon as its new CEO, the brand's owner Stellantis said on Monday, as the group's search for its own top executive nears completion. The French-Italian owner of the Jeep and Peugeot brands is choosing who will lead it through one of the industry's most tumultuous periods, after its former CEO Carlos Tavares abruptly departed in December following a dramatic plunge in sales and profit. Chardon was at Citroen between 1994 and 2012, most recently as managing director of the brand in France, before joining the Volkswagen group where he has been head of sales for Europe and for the past four years head of France. He will take over the top job at Citroen from June 2 and will report to Stellantis' Chief Operating Officer for Enlarged Europe Jean-Philippe Imparato, the group added. His predecessor, Thierry Koskas, who led the brand since 2023, will leave Stellantis, a spokesperson of the group told Reuters.
Zawya
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Zawya
Citroën appoints a new CEO
Xavier Chardon has been appointed chief executive officer of Citroën, effective 2 June 2025. He will report to Jean-Philippe Imparato, chief operating officer for Enlarged Europe at Stellantis. Chardon will continue the momentum initiated by the brand in recent months. With a strong international background and in-depth knowledge of the Citroën brand, to which he dedicated almost 20 years of his career, his mission will be to build on Citroën's recent successes and accelerate the brand's transformation in a rapidly changing automotive landscape. Jean-Philippe Imparato stated: 'I would like to thank Thierry Koskas for leading the Citroën brand over the last two years and for achieving its lineup renewal, most recently with the presentation of the new C5 Aircross.' 'We are very pleased to welcome Xavier Chardon to the head of Citroën. His rich and diverse career, his expertise in the automotive sector and his knowledge of the brand will be valuable assets in leading Citroën towards new horizons and strengthening its unique position in the market,' concluded Imparato. All rights reserved. © 2022. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
