Citroen recently announced the price of its upcoming SUV, Citroen Basalt and shook the Indian market. Citroen Basalt is priced at an attractive price of 7.99 Lakhs. This pricing strategy could prove problematic for various car makers as it’s overlapping several models offered by competitors like Punch, Magnite, Kiger, Brezza, Sonet, Venue, Xuv 300, Creta, Seltos, Grand Vitara and Elevate. Basalt can even negatively impact the sales of Citroen’s own C3 Aircross.
Dimensions of Basalt are 4353 x 1765 x 1593 which for reference is comparable to Creta having dimensions of 4330 x 1790 x 1620. With car of this size and pricing even lesser than sub 4 meter SUVs, Citroen has really got the competitors in trouble with the pricing.
Basalt offers a 1.2 Naturally aspirated engine which offers decent performance according to size of the SUV. Driving dynamics of the cars are also good and though the features offered on the SUV are limited, everything offered works fairly reliably. 1.2 liter naturally aspirated engine offered on Basalt performs better than some of the rivals with 1.2 liter NA engine like Punch, Venue and Sonet. Surprisingly it even drives better than the 1.2 turbo petrol offered on Nexon
Citroen can get this car working as Indians usually prefer big sized cars and Citroen is offering a decently big car with affordable pricing. We will have to wait and see how well this car is accepted in the Indian market.