Citroen‘s UK operation was instrumental in making the new “Teutonic” C5 an overtly business-related model across Europe, according to marketing and fleet director Ian Hughes.
Predicting a 70% of all new C5 saloons and its estate counterpart, due this summer, will go to fleets, Hughes said: “We have had a greater input than ever before into moulding a car’s role as a corporate contender.”
He added: “From our global chief executive Gilles Michel down, there is receptiveness and enthusiasm, a passion to learn how to create good fleet cars. If we produce a car that is right for our fleet market it works across Europe and that is why we had so much influence with C5.”
C5 diesel engines should account for 70% of all registrations while Hughes claimed that rival new entrants were creating a “vibrant time” while stabilising the declining upper medium sector.
Meanwhile, Ian Hughes said the company is reviewing whether or not to import an E85 biofuel C5 following the Chancellor’s “counter intuitive” decision to remove E85’s 20 pence a litre duty advantage over petrol.