PSA Building C4 Cactus at Nearly Shuttered Plant

MADRID – Citroen appears to be sending its new C4 Cactus model down the trail blazed by rival Renault’s Captur.

The PSA Peugeot Citroen brand has launched sales of the urban CUV assembled at the French automaker’s Madrid plant. Although it is a compact, the C4 Cactus uses PSA’s PF1 subcompact platform to reduce weight and save fuel.

The Madrid plant is assembling 340 units daily of the C4 Cactus, which has 85% of its components made in Spain and 65% in the value of Spanish content. Daily production is expected to reach 380 units in July, but if demand is high enough assemblies will increase to 500.

Total C4 Cactus production is estimated at 80,000 units, and possibly as many as 85,000, in 2014.

The C4 Cactus assembly line also produces the Peugeot 207 CC cabrio, which will be discontinued later this year, and was building the just-discontinued Peugeot 207 Plus hatchback.

Despite the extra production provided by the two older models, total output falls far short of the Madrid plant’s 150,000-unit annual capacity. The C4 Cactus nevertheless has brought a glimmer of hope to workers at the plant, which nearly closed recently.

Carlos Tavares, the new CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroen, has divided Citroen and DS into two independent brands, generalist and premium, respectively. He has named Linda Jackson, who was general manager of Citroen for U.K. and Ireland, to head Citroen and Yves Bonnefort to run DS, both from June 1. Peugeot will remain under the command of Maxime Picat.

One of Jackson’s goals is to overhaul the Citroen range, a process that has started with the C4 Cactus. Bonnefort must provide a corresponding premium image for DS.