Citroen C5 Aircross Hybrid 2020 UK review

Plug-in hybrid powertrain makes Citroen's flagship SUV more versatile, but competition is fierce Until last year it was a 40-year Citroën tradition that the marque’s biggest and most expensive model should be a large, likeable, slow-selling and fast-depreciating business saloon. In 2019, however, the company corrected that mistake by launching a handsome and distinctive SUV flagship, the C5 Aircross, though even that failed at first to join the electrification bandwagon that was already rolling fast.Now Citroën has remedied this shortcoming with a new two-model range of C5 Aircross plug-in hybrids that catapults it to the front rank of SUV efficiency. The entry-level Flair model costs a very reasonable £35,370, considering it comes with equipment like climate control, air-con and traffic-monitoring navigation, but the bargain is the Flair Plus, which costs barely £1500 more while adding more ornate 19in alloy wheels (instead of 18s), half-leather trim, an electric-adjust driver’s seat, radar cruise control and a hands-free motorised tailgate.The new PHEV powertrain takes the PSA Group’s Puretech 180 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol turbo engine, good for 178bhp, and mates it to an 80kW electric motor in the standard eight-speed automatic gearbox to make a powertrain with a maximum power of 222bhp and maximum torque of 369lb ft. Most of that torque is available from standstill – which is a powerful reason why this front-drive-only model's generous retinue of driver aids (lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, parking sensors, colour reversing camera) needs to be topped by a very effective traction control.