China to influence future Citroen design

The bamboo curtain is no barrier to new design ideas, says Alexandre Malval, Design Director at Citroen.

Speaking with Australian journalists in France to drive the C4 Cactus, Malval said of Citroen's customers in China that they have internet access and are very cued-in to the latest styling trends out of Europe. They are, in fact, driving companies like Citroen to head off in new directions.

"They are really hungry to get something new and fresh," Malval said of Chinese consumers.

But there's a hurdle to overcome. The company's designers in China appear to be grappling with what their employer expects them to do. There was a hint of frustration in the styling chief's words when he insinuated the output of the Chinese designers lacked "flair".

"We have Chinese designers actually trying to make European cars... in the studio; we're trying to push them, actually, to go further," said Malval. "We don't want them to do what we're doing already or have done..."

China is already a big market for Citroen, with the company selling one out of every four cars built in the Asian market.

Malval believes the Chinese designers – through Dongfeng, Citroen's joint venture partner in China – can bring something different to the company in the form of new and unusual 'silhouettes'.

"There are some silhouettes you see in China that are very popular, but we still don't have in our range. Obviously we have to react, so this type of influence they can have on our products."

One example of that is the company's C4 Elysee (pictured), a small sedan developed specifically for China and based on the C4's PF1 platform. That's the sort of engineering development, based on an existing 'silhouette', that Citroen can entrust to Dongfeng's designers. Key styling features, however, will remain the preserve of Citroen's design teams elsewhere. Like other car companies around the world, Citroen is adhering to a global village view of international car design.

"In terms of pure design, pure styling, there is kind of a world fashion. There is no frontier now, because of the Internet..."