Citroen outflanks rivals with new Berlingo, Nemo

It's tough down there in the trenches. Ateco Automotive, distributor for the Citroen range in Australia, has had to delay introduction of the new Berlingo while double-checking currency movements and stock run-out.

The Berlingo has been a significant success story over the years for the local distributor, although even Citroen's light van has not been immune from the sales slump affecting the local market as a whole.

Originally planned for release late last year, the new Berlingo (B9 series) is now in dealerships, selling alongside the previous generation (M59).

"[The economic and financial situation] is affecting an awful lot of car launches at the moment -- they're just being delayed because we've got to run out previous models or there are simply delays in getting vehicles here. And there's the whole currency issue as well," says Edward Rowe, Ateco's Public Relations Manager.

On the subject of currency, prices for the new Berlingo range from $22,990 for the petrol short body variant up to $26,490 for the Turbo Diesel long body version. Ateco will continue to sell the previous generation Berlingo, which is now marketed as 'Berlingo First'.

Contrary to our earlier report (more here), the new Berlingo will be sold in two different lengths, but the longer vehicle's extra cargo volume comes from a stretched rear overhang, not the wheelbase. This is in keeping with the Peugeot Partner (more here), the Berlingo's badge buddy. 240mm longer than the Berlingo First, the L1 (short-body) Berlingo is itself 248mm shorter than the L2 (long-body) Berlingo. Even though the Berlingo L2 carries more by volume, its payload is just 750kg, whereas the Berlingo L1 will carry 850kg.

By being based on the C4 Picasso ("It's not the platform, it's actually the floorpan -- of the C4 Picasso," says Rowe), the new Berlingo in short-body form yields 3.3 cubic metres of cargo volume, a 10 per cent improvement on the 'Berlingo First'. With the fold-down front passenger seat now not only a table for the driver but also a 'load extender', that volume can be increased to 3.7 cubic metres. The extra rear overhang in the long-body Berlingo liberates a further cubic metre of volume for a total, with the front-passenger seat folded flat, of 4.7 cubic metres.

Shared with the Peugeot Partner, the Berlingo offers two 1.6-litre four-cylinder engines, one petrol and one diesel. Both engines develop the same peak power, 66kW, but the petrol engine produces 132Nm of torque and the diesel produces 215Nm.

Dynamically, the new Berlingo sits on a combination of front MacPherson-type struts and rear torsion beam. 15-inch steel wheels are braked by ventilated front disc brakes and sold rear discs. ABS is standard.

All variants are fitted with the following standard equipment: trip computer, cruise control, Air conditioning, remote central locking, electric front windows, electrically adjustable door mirrors, heat-reflecting windscreen, an external temperature sensor and an MP3-compatible CD audio system. 

When asked about a sales forecast for the new Berlingo, Rowe chuckled.

"You tell me what the total market is going to be and you tell me what the dollar's going to be and I'll give you a volume projection," he said.

"It really is difficult to say at the moment and obviously the light commercial vehicle has been hit harder than the car market as well. We expect that to pick up, but it's taken a bit of a hit as well.

"It's a business confidence issue, rather than a financial ability issue. Obviously once businesses feel that they've got a secure future, they'll go back into a buying pattern.

"Our traditional customer base for Berlingo has been small businesses rather than fleets. These are obviously businesses [that] have a tendency to put off purchases, depending on how their businesses are functioning.

"That also makes planning very difficult. Pretty well at the moment, we're just working quarter to quarter, because it's very hard to make any form of definitive long-term predictions at the moment."

That basically sums up why Ateco is coming out all guns ablaze with an expanded light commercial vehicle range. There's an element of throwing whatever will stick at the problem -- and that includes the 'Berlingo First', which will remain on sale until the smaller Nemo arrives, says Rowe.

"We're going to continue selling it as well, pending the arrival of Nemo."

"We're looking at [Nemo] for probably fourth quarter. You've gotta bear in mind that Nemo is built in an all-new joint-venture [factory] that's never built right-hand drive before -- out of Turkey."

Rowe explains that Tofas, the Turkish company that will build the Nemo -- and its badge-engineered stablemates the Peugeot Bipper and Fiat Fiorino (more here) -- has long experience building vehicles and could provide the cost-effective production to keep the new vehicles in line with the cheap (and rather old) models they replace, the Citroen C15 and the Fiat Panda van.

"They really had to go for a low-cost production base, because Peugeot simply weren't in that market at all, but for Fiat and Citroen, it was replacing a vehicle very much at the low end of the price range," he remarked.

"When we get the Nemo, obviously its price position will be as near as possible to -- as we now call it -- 'Berlingo First'. The new Berlingo and Nemo actually bracket the existing Berlingo, because the Nemo is slightly smaller in payload and capacity -- and the new Berlingo is obviously bigger in payload and capacity.

"It offers something the original Berlingo never offered, and that was the longer body," Rowe concluded.