Peugeot 208 if launched in India will compete against the likes of Hyundai i20 and Maruti Suzuki Baleno
French automotive company Groupe PSA will be entering the Indian market next year with its brand Citroen. The company’s first launch in India is expected to be its flagship C5 Aircross SUV which is set to make its debut early next year.
Apart from C5 Aircross, it is also to bring out three more subcompact UVs which it has lined for the near future- two fossil-fueled and one electrified. Ahead of launching their cars, Peugeot Citroen are testing multiple cars on Indian roads.
Peugeot Cars On Test In India
In addition to the above mentioned cars, they are also testing Berlingo MPV. Though the MPV is not planned for launch yet, the company is likely testing it to gather data on Indian road conditions. Volkswagen is another company which does that – testing global cars, which are not even on sale in India.
Just a few days back, it was the Berlingo MPV which was spied in Delhi, and now, it is the Peugeot 208 which has been spied by EAPMagIndia in Chennai, near the company plant. Interestingly, it does not seem like the latest third generation model which went on sale globally a while back. This test mule is of older second generation Peugeot 208, which is still on sale in a few countries like Malaysia.
Powertrain
In its Malaysian-spec, Peugeot 208 is powered by a 1.2-litre turbo petrol engine which generates 110 PS of power and 205 Nm of peak torque. There also is a GTI version of 208 available which employs a 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine and cranks out 208 PS of power and 300 Nm of peak torque.
Testing Peugeot 208 makes sense as upcoming cars under Citroen’s C-cube program which has been specifically developed for Indian markets will be based on CMP (Common Modular Platform), the same which underpins this hatchback. Although CMP in India will have a high extent of localisation. With the upcoming small SUV from Citroen still in development, it makes sense to test the chassis and engine on a test mule of 208 hatchback.
Other Groupe PSA Products in pipeline
Other cars in line for Groupe PSA are a compact SUV- codenamed CC24, a subcompact crossover codenamed- CC21 and its fully electrified version eCC21. The CC24 will rival the likes of Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet and Nissan Magnite and will be powered by the same 1.2-litre turbo petrol unit churning out 130 PS of power. While CC21 will take on the likes of Tata HBX and will be powered by the same 1.2-litre unit based on a flexi-fuel system.
The eCC21, on the other hand, will take on the likes of eKUV100, WagonR electric and HBX EV. The first one is expected to launch in the second half of 2021 while the latter two are expected to make their debut in 2022.
