Citroen’s popular people mover, Berlingo has been spotted testing on the Indian roads. The French manufacturer could be testing the 1.2-litre petrol engine which in 2018 won the International Engine of the Year award. The test mule is believed to be the Berlingo MPV being used only to test the engine parameters.
In fact, Citroen’s plans on launching its first SUV in the Indian market were also postponed to 2021, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The brand through official social media channels also revealed that under the ‘C-Cubed’ program, Citroen will launch a total of four new vehicles starting with the Citroën C5 Aircross planned for Q1 of 2021 and then one new model every year from 2021 to 2023.
The 1.2-litre turbo-petrol engine is speculated to be tested for Citroen’s upcoming cars in India under the C-Cubed program and the Berlingo MPV could be used only as a testbed. The engine in question is the 1.2-litre PureTech S&S turbo-petrol engine that produces 110 Hp of power in Manual and 130 Hp of power on the 8-speed automatic transmission. On the Berlingo, there is also a 1.5-litre BlueHDi S&S diesel engine option that comes in three states of tune – 75 hp, 100 hp or 130 hp matched to a 6-speed manual transmission or an 8-speed automatic gearbox.
The Citroen Berlingo is based on PSA’s EMP2 Architecture and comes in two sizes M & XL – the M size measures 4403 mm in length, 1844 mm in height, 2107 mm in width and the XL measures 4753 mm in length and 1849 mm in height, other dimensions are identical to each other. The M and XL on the inside differ with the seating capacity, where the M comes with 5 seats the XL can accommodate 7 seats.
The brand may in future offer the Citroen Berlingo in the Indian market in the XL version but presently, the brand is focussed on launching the C5 Aircross their Flagship SUV in the Indian market which is scheduled to be introduced in the first quarter of 2021. The Citroën C5 Aircross will be manufactured at the PSA-CK Birla joint manufacturing facility in Thiruvallur, Tamil Nadu.