Citroen heavy on Visa
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• Citroen UK is expected to bring in a new 760kg payload version of its C15 Visa van this year. The heavyweight Visa, which offers almost 30% more payload than the current righthand-drive C15 range, is already sold in France, and while Citroen UK says it has suffered some shortages of RHD C15s, the company reports that it is "highly probable" that it will import the heavier Visa van into the UK.
Few details are currently available on the big Visa, beyond the fact that it shares the same basic 2.67m3 body shell as the existing 585kg payload right-hand-drive C15, but has a higher gross weight and uprated suspension to handle the greater potential payload. It is, however, only
offered with the 1.8-litre Citroen 45kW (60hp) indirectinjection diesel engine.
The addition of the heavier 760kg payload Visa van would be a major step beyond the recent revisions carried out by Citroen UK to the Visa range. These include the adoption of twin rear doors as standard — the original Visa was supplied with a single rear door — and the dropping of the 1.4-litre 45kW (60hp) Super E petrol engine. The 1.1-litre 35kW (47hp) petrol unit has, however, been retained. lp Plans to introduce the hatchback-derived Citroen AX van in the autumn (CM 11-18 June) could be put back due to shortages of right-hand-drive models and wrangles over the tax status of the little van.
The success of the passenger variant AX in the UK and its continental equivalents has meant that RHD supplies are being restricted. The problem is further compounded by the UK Customs and Excise delay in accepting the blanking-off of the AX hatchback's rear windows to exempt it from car cax. Without this exemption the van cannot even be typeapproved for the UK.