Peugeot CitroënGroup (PSA) has announced that production of an all-new 'market-winning' Citroënvehicle will commence at its French plant in Rennes in 2018.

Following a troubled decade or so, the French PSA Group is having a good run globally of late under the guidance of CEO Carlos Tavares. NowPeugeot Citroënhave invested€100 million into its factory in Rennes aspart of its Push to Pass plan. This strategy will see the unveiling of up to34 new models from these two brands in the next few years. This aggressive product roll-out will see four new vehicles coming from PSA in under two years. Production output of this factory is expected to increased by 60% by 2018. The next generation Peugeot 5008 and the CitroënE-Mehari are already confirmed for production.

As for the new crossover product, there are more questions than answers right now. PSA claims it will be built on the EMP2 platform, which is currently the foundation for the acclaimed Peugeot 308(second generation),2013Citroën C4 Picasso(second generation),and2016DS 4(second generation) to name but a few. This platform is flexible and offers either long or short wheelbase configurations, high or low ride height and different suspension setups can be used. It's also 70 kg lighter than the previous platform. This modular platform additionally makes provision for front-wheel and four-wheel drive.

So what can we expect of this crossover? Based on the platform description above, we could potentially see an all-wheel drive, radically-designed Citroënfeaturing one of the potent, yet frugal e-THP turbo engines. In terms of style, we can look at the past few Citroënconcepts to gauge possible design cues. Fingers crossed it resembles the outrageously striking CitroënAircross concept. We should see this all-new Citroëncrossover hit European roads in 2018.

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