Citroën is hoping a combination of innovation and simplicity will create a new impetus for the brand when it laches a new crossover car next year.

The new C4 Cactus will be inspired by the Citroën Cactus concept to be unveiled at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show, and will retain its innovative Airbump protective door panels.

Citroën designer Mark Lloyd said that with the successful launch of the DS sub-brand, it was important to re-define the C-Line cars, and the production version of the Cactus would do that.

It will become available with Peugeot-Citroën's new range of Blue HDi engines (available in some Citroën models from November), offering sub-90g/km CO2 emissions and around 90mpg on the combined cycle.

Airbump is designed to protect the Cactus from car park damage such as from nearby cars opening doors, or from bumps with shopping trolleys. In the production versions there will options to use contrasting or complementary colours for Airbump depending on the exterior colour choice.

The Citroën Cactus interior has a front bench seat - which won't be retained for production but the layout will resemble a bench with adjustable individual seats. The Cactus also has a roof-mounted passenger airbag, which allows more storage space in the dashboard. The instrument cluster has been replaced by a screen, with an adjacent touch-screen in the dashboard centre for accessing functions.

The concept car also comes with hybrid-air technology, a future low-CO2 powertrain system being developed for Peugeot and Citroën models.

More articles on: