Citroën C5 axed from UK due to diminishing sales

The Citroën C5 has been axed from the UK car market due to shrinking sales, with just 237 examples of the Ford Mondeo rival selling here last year.

Citroen C5 Aircross SUV to be revealed at Shanghai motor show

The 2015 figure represents 0.5% of the sales the C5 achieved in its best-selling period, 2001 to 2004, when 45,502 were delivered to British customers. UK sales for the model have been steadily declining since, and the latest Mk3 has sold just 17,105 units since its introduction in 2008.

Citroën cites the increasing popularity of crossovers and compact SUVs as the main cause for the model’s demise, and says D-segment sales now account for just 4% of the overall UK market.

Interestingly, demand for the C5 still remains strong in left-hand drive markets, with the model’s biggest sales achieved in its home market of France, where 6549 examples were delivered last year. However, that figure still represents just 20% of the sales achieved six years earlier, illustrating how the trend is not just a British one.

Citroën hasn’t confirmed if the C5 will be replaced when the current model’s production run comes to an end. Last year Autocar reported that the C5 could be reinvented in its next generation and earlier this year the car maker said it would be replaced, but latest trends suggest the model could now be dropped from Citroen’s line-up entirely.

The car maker thinks its C4 Picasso and Grand C4 Picasso models are now better placed to cater to the UK market, although global market demand suggests even MPVs such as these are under threat from the rapid growth in the popularity of crossovers.

SUVs and crossovers now account for one in four car sales in the European Union and the segment is the fastest growing in the world. Citroën will be better placed to take advantage of this change in the coming years, as it plans to introduce a new family of crossovers inspired by the look of the Aircross concept, which itself evolves the design of the C4 Cactus.