As India’s crucial festive car-buying season gets underway, many carmakers are asking customers to pay more. Citroën is asking a different question: how much less must it charge—and how much more must it offer—to bring more buyers through the door?
From its 100,000-vehicle-a-year manufacturing base at Thiruvallur, near Chennai, the Stellantis-owned French marque on September 7 lowered the turbo entry price of the BasaltX by roughly ₹1.5 lakh to ₹9.99 lakh and that of the AircrossX by about ₹1.3 lakh to ₹10.69 lakh.
The contrast is unusual. While stronger rivals have periodically raised sticker prices to protect margins and pass on higher costs, Citroën is moving down the price ladder just as one of India’s biggest car-buying periods begins.
Behind that effort sits a bigger and less comfortable number: 9,576. That is how many Citroën vehicles were sold domestically in FY26, up 47 per cent from 6,516 a year earlier. The year’s domestic volume was equivalent to fewer than one vehicle for every 10 that its Chennai-area plant has annual capacity to make. The factory also produces vehicles for export, so the comparison isn’t actual plant utilisation, but illustrates the gap between Citroën’s manufacturing footprint and domestic scale.
So how many more buyers can lower prices bring? Quite a lot is being thrown at the answer
Citroën isn’t simply discounting the same cars. It is rearranging its variant ladder. The 108 bhp turbocharged engine has moved into the lower YOU trim, putting the BasaltX turbo at ₹9.99 lakh and the AircrossX turbo at ₹10.69 lakh.
If buyers want more equipment but not the turbo, the naturally aspirated engine moves the other way—into MAX variants priced at ₹11.34 lakh for the BasaltX and ₹11.62 lakh for the AircrossX. Naturally aspirated versions also offer CNG.
If an electric car costs too much upfront, Citroën has separated the battery from the purchase price. The ë-C3X EXTENDED starts at ₹6.99 lakh under battery-as-a-service, offers a certified 330-km range and charges ₹2.26 per kilometre for battery usage, below advertised BaaS rates of ₹2.50/km for the MG Comet EV, about ₹2.60/km for the Tata Punch EV and ₹3.50/km or more for the MG Windsor EV.
And if the monthly payment is the problem, Citroën has stretched financing to seven years, bringing first-year EMIs to ₹9,999 for the BasaltX and ₹10,555 for the AircrossX.
Price. Performance. Equipment. Fuel. Range. Battery cost. EMI
Citroën is steadily working through the reasons an Indian buyer might give for saying no. “At Citroën, we continuously listen to our customers and evolve our products to better match their lifestyles and mobility needs,” said Kumar Priyesh, Business Head & Director, Automotive Brands, Stellantis India. Signs suggest some of it is beginning to work. Citroën sold 4,908 vehicles in H1 CY26, more than double the roughly 2,370 sold in H1 CY25, a rise of about 107 per cent.
The percentages look like a turnaround. The absolute numbers still look like a foothold.
Bottom of the 2% club and fighting
Citroën doesn’t need to compare itself with India’s largest carmakers to see how far it still has to go. Honda, Renault and Nissan operate at the thin end of the passenger-vehicle market, while Škoda, Volkswagen, Citroën and Jeep all inhabit India’s under-2 per cent club when measured as individual brands.
Citroën remains small even among India’s smaller carmakers, but sales are finally rising sharply from a low base as the crucial festive season begins. The cars are there. The factory is there. The prices are coming down. Buyers are beginning to come. The question is whether enough will. For Citroën, that leaves a more fundamental festive-season question: how much more must it offer—and how much less must it charge—to bring enough Indian buyers through the door?