The Citroën Élysée is a small family

saloon car A sedan or saloon (British English) is a passenger car in a three-box configuration with separate compartments for an engine, passengers, and cargo. The first recorded use of the word "sedan" in reference to an automobile body occurred in 19 ...

produced for the Chinese domestic market by the

Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile Dongfeng is the romanization of several Chinese names of which most notably "East Wind" (); it may refer to: People's Republic of China * Dongfeng (missile) (), series of ballistic missiles of the People's Liberation Army * Chinese series of die ...

, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

PSA Group The PSA Group (), legally known as Peugeot S.A. (Peugeot Société Anonyme, trading as Groupe PSA; formerly known as PSA Peugeot Citroën from 1991 to 2016) was a French multinational automotive manufacturing company which produced automobiles ...

(

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired 8 ...

) and the Chinese manufacturer

Dongfeng Motor Dongfeng Motor Corporation Ltd. is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Wuhan, Hubei. Founded in 1969, it is currently the third largest of the " Big Four" state-owned car manufacturers of China, namely: SAIC Motor, FAW ...

. Production commenced in June 2002.

History

2002-2008: Élysée

Introduced in 2002 with a 4-door sedan body, the car was nothing more than a profound restyling of the previous

Citroën Fukang The Citroën Fukang or Dongfeng Fukang is a series of compact vehicles available in a variety of body styles. It was the first in a range of cars produced for the Chinese market by the Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile group, a joint venture be ...

or the specific version for the Chinese market of the

Citroën ZX The Citroën ZX is a small family car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën between 1991 and 1998. During the beginning of the 1990s, the ZX was Citroën's competitor in the class traditionally dominated in Europe by the Ford Escort and ...

produced by the joint venture between the PSA Group and the Chinese manufacturer Dongfeng Motor in the Wuhan plant. The Élysée, while maintaining the layout of the old car, introduced a totally new front with new headlights inherited from the second series

Peugeot 306 The Peugeot 306 is a small family car built by the French car manufacturer Peugeot from 1993 to 2002. It replaced the 309. Peugeot gave the 306 many updates and aesthetic changes to keep up with the competition, and it was replaced by the 307 in ...

, a new grille and bumpers similar to those of the Saxo and new taillights made their debut at the rear. Inside, the change was more evident: the same dashboard as the Xsara debuts with a rounded and more modern style and the finish and overall quality of the car are greatly improved. The engine range consisted of the 1.4 four-cylinder 75 horsepower with 5-speed manual gearbox and the 1.6 four-cylinder delivering 88 and 105 horsepower with a 5-speed manual and a four-speed automatic gearbox. Shortly after the launch, the Élysée VIP was also introduced, a version with the wheelbase extended by 16 centimeters and a 4.50 meter long bodywork characterized by richer and more luxurious fittings with faux briar finishes and leather seats as well as external chrome along the car body. The VIP engine was the only 1.6 four-cylinder sixteen valve engine delivering 105 horsepower combined with a 4-speed automatic gearbox. File:Elysee8.jpg, Promotional image File:Citroën Elysée rear China 2012-04-28.JPG, Citroën Élysée rear (2002–2008)

2008: the C-Élysée debuts

On April 8, 2008, an updated version was presented at the Beijing Motor Show and there was a change of name to C-Élysée and at the same time the car underwent another restyling to bring it into line with the range of cars produced by Citroën for the Chinese market. ; the "C" in the name was chosen to maintain consistency in the new names adopted by the manufacturer. The most evident aesthetic change was in the grille, now in line with the European Citroën, and in particular with the second generation of the

Citroën C5 The Citroën C5 is a large family car (classified as a mid-size crossover since 2021) produced by the French manufacturer Citroën since March 2001, currently at its third generation. It replaced the Citroën Xantia, in the large family car clas ...

, as it incorporated the emblem into the two large horizontal chromed bars that made up the grille itself. In total, 300 changes were made by Dongfeng technicians compared to the previous model. The new car was a step lower than the C-Triomphe based on the C4, and was equipped with the 109 HP 1.6 16v engine, as well as a decidedly more modern equipment than the previous Élysée, which included the latest generation ABS system. , updated suspension and an audio system with USB socket. As for the transmission, there were two gearbox variants available: 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic. Inside, the dashboard maintained the same setting as the previous one, but new seats with better padding were introduced. The VIP variant was also restyled. Starting from 2009, the C-Élysée was also offered with a hatchback two-volume bodywork, replacing the old Fukang: in this case the rear lights, while recalling in form those of a normal ZX or a normal Fukang a two volumes, were more rounded in the corners and were more modern in the graphics of the plastics. File:Citroen C-Elysee IMG001.jpg, Citroën C-Élysée front (2008–2010) File:Citroen C-Elysee IMG003.jpg, Citroën C-Élysée rear (2008–2010) File:Citroën C-Elysée hatch 01 China 2012-06-16.jpg, Citroën Élysée hatch (front) File:Citroën C-Elysée hatch 02 China 2012-06-16.jpg, Citroën Élysée hatch (rear)

2012: last update

In 2012, a final restyling of the car was presented which saw only the front bumpers and rear light clusters modified. The general line remains the same as the 2008 model. The 5-door and VIP models are out of production replaced by the locally assembled Citroën C4 5-door and sedan. Production of the first generation of C-Elysee ends in early 2013 when the parent company begins to produce the second generation of the car, completely new and the result of a global project. File:Citroën C-Elysée sedan facelift China 2015-04-06.jpg, Citroën C-Élysée front (2011–2013) File:2010 Dongfeng-Citroën C-Elysée sedan Luoyang taxi, rear 8.4.18.jpg, Citroën C-Élysée taxi in

Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyan ...

Henan province Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

, China

Specification

Design

The Élysée was designed in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

and is derived from the

, with many parts (including the

dashboard For business applications, see Dashboard (business). A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel (IP), or fascia) is a control panel set within the central console of a vehicle or small aircraft. Usually located directly ahead of the drive ...

) taken from the

Citroën Xsara The Citroën Xsara () is a compact car, compact C-segment family car, produced by the France, French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën, under their Citroën marque, from 1997 to 2006. The Xsara was a development of the Citroën ZX and Peugeot 306, w ...

and

Citroën Saxo The Citroën Saxo was a supermini produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1996 to 2004. It was sold in Japan as the Citroën Chanson, because Honda had registered the "Saxo" name. As a badge engineered variant of the Peugeot 106 (whic ...

. The car has a VTS sport version with only red

colour Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

Élysée VIP

The Élysée VIP version was launched in 2005. The VIP is a stretched variant of the Élysée with a wheelbase extended by 15 centimetres and more luxurious interior taking similar styling cues to the

. It then ended production in 2010.Citroën Elysee VIP
/ref> File:Citroën Elysée VIP 01 China 2017-03-19.jpg, Citroën Élysée VIP (2005–2010)

Related vehicle

The platform and the engine of the Élysée/Fukang was used by Dongfeng Motor for the Dongfeng Fengshen S30 File:Dongfeng Fengshen S30 China 2012-05-27.jpg, Dongfeng Fengshen S30

Second generation (2013–present)

References

External links

CITROËNS: Donfeng
{{DEFAULTSORT:Citroen Elysee Elysee Dongfeng vehicles Front-wheel-drive vehicles Cars of China 2010s cars Compact cars Sedans Touring cars Cars introduced in 2002