Citroen Concetto

Citroen’s got a catch with latest MPV

French giant Citroen is angling for a slice of the compact MPV market – and here’s the proof! This is the Nemo Concetto, a people carrier version of the recently launched van.

Auto Express Car Reviews

Special Nemo is finished in colours of movie star fish!

08th December 2007

Painted in the same orange and white colours as the famous clown fish that starred in Disney film Finding Nemo, the Concetto really stood out when it made its debut at the Bologna Motor Show this week.

Although it’s only a design study for now – Concetto means concept in Italian – the car is essentially a little brother for the Berlingo Multispace, and goes on sale next year.

Twin sliding side doors and a split tailgate provide plenty of versatility, while there’s also ample space for five occupants. The back seats can be removed to give an enormous luggage area.

It looks cute, too, with neat porthole windows at the rear. Based on the Nemo van, the newcomer is the result of a Citroen joint project with Peugeot and Fiat. Their products are badged Bipper and Fiorino respectively.

In terms of size, the Concetto falls between supermini-MPVs such as the Vauxhall Meriva and larger people carriers like the Zafira.

Power for the Nemo is expected to come from the same range of petrol and diesel engines as the van – and pick of the line-up will be the 1.4-litre HDi diesel. It puts out an impressively low 119g/km of CO2, and so sits in road tax band B and will be exempt from the London Congestion Charge under proposed changes which are likely to come into force in 2008. Citroen is still deciding whether to sell the car here – but on the basis of this concept, we would urge it to do just that.