- Also debuts many new features and equipment

- Will go on sale in the second half of 2021

Is it a saloon? Is it an estate? Is it a coupe-crossover? No, it’s the new Citroen C5 X! Making its global premiere, the new Citroen C5 X brings in a unique combination of three conventional body styles while arriving as a flagship offering from the French carmaker.

‘The C5 X expresses modernity, status, and innovation, all of which are high expectations for a customer in the large car as well as SUV segments’, says Citroen. Take a look at it upfront and it appears like a modern French sedan with its long bonnet, sleek X-esque LEDs, along with subtle finishes to the grille and front bumper. Move to the side and the blacked-out body cladding manifests a crossover intention further helped by a high waistline and tall stance – something you’d expect from a small SUV or a sedan-based estate. But the C-pillar is so raked, you’d have to find its slope with an algebraic formula!

With its floating roofline, large 19-inch wheels, high ground clearance, and clean lines, the Citroen C5 X is rather handsome looking instead of a grotesque design that usually results in if you heterogeneously combine two or more body styles together. Positioned in the D-segment, it takes cues from the sleek looking CXperience Concept showcased at the 2016 Paris Motor Show. And since it’s the current flagship, the C5X is also a technological tour de force both on the inside and underneath.

For starters, the C5 X debuts something called the ‘Citroen Advanced Comfort’ which is the new active suspension technology that claims to offer a magic carpet ride. It also comes with Level 2 autonomous driving credentials helped with hardware like adaptive cruise control, lane assist, 360-degree camera, blind-spot and rear-cross alert, and more.

Then there’s the lounge-like cabin thanks to the ‘Advanced Comfort’ seats and a boot space of 545-litres, expandable up to 1,640-litres. Another new tech on the inside includes heads up display, newer driving assistance features, the new infotainment interface with a central-mounted 12-inch HD touchscreen, natural voice recognition, and a customisable display with widgets.

If you are curious to know, the C5 X measures 4,805mm x 1,865mm x 1,485mm with a wheelbase of 2,785mm – or to give a perspective, it’s as long as Endeavour, as wide as the Kodiaq, and as tall as Elantra! And the wheelbase is slightly more than the Civic’s. In terms of powertrain, there’s a 225bhp plug-in hybrid on offer that can do 50kilometres on pure EV mode and with a top speed of 135kmph while at it. There are no more details regarding the powertrain available at the moment, but Citroen says that a typical owner can go around the weekend without using the petrol engine at all.

The Citroen C5 X will go on sale in the second half of 2021, first in the European markets. We could expect an Indian introduction, but that’s fairly a few years from now.