Citroën C-Métisse hybrid concept

With Peugeot's announcement of the worlds first diesel hybrid we thought it would be interesting to have a look back at a similar 'through-the-road' hybrid concept show car that sister company Citroen displayed at the at the 2006 Paris Motor Show.

CITROËN C-Métisse concept car had the usual attention grabbing gull wing doors and chopped roof line but it's hybrid power train is something we hope does actually reach production in the not too distant future.

Similar to the Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4, the C-Métisse featured a conventional front wheel drive diesel, a 150 kW (208 hp) 2.7 Lt V6, mated to a 6 speed automatic. To make the car a though-the-road hybrid Citroen added two wheel motors to the rear wheels, each with 15 Kw (20 hp) and 300 Nm. The TM4 supplied wheel motors were liquid cooled BLDC motors with independent controllers that eliminated the need for a mechanical differential.



With 4WD and the 600 Nm of electric motor torque, the 1400 kg C-Métisse can cover 0-60 mph in 6 seconds. No specs were even given for the battery pack but with a claimed EV mode range of only 3 km at 30 kph an educated guess would say the battery storage capacity was less than 1 kWh.

Due to the very small battery capacity the combined cycle fuel consumption was 6.5 l/100 km which is only about 36.2 US MPG. Still, with a larger battery and the advantage of the rear wheel motors to not only regenerate but independent control that can be incorporated into stability systems, the C-Métisse hybrid concept still has enormous potential