First details of the eagerly awaited Citron C2 reveal a three door supermini with distinctive style, strong road presence, innovative practicality, exceptional equipment and sporty appeal for the VTR version. It will go on sale towards the end of the year.

The C2 promises to be the 'wild child' of the supermini sector with its purposeful bonnet, squared off headlamps and large wheel arches providing room enough for 16 inch wheels.

The four seat Citron C2 boasts a range of bright, modern design schemes, including orange, blue and green, for the colour-coded trim and matching coloured translucent gear lever knob and armrests.

Clever stuff too from Citron sees the introduction of sliding and folding rear seats, for unprecedented versatility. As well as providing more elbowroom than most superminis, this ingenious configuration also provides excellent legroom or good bootspace plus plenty of luggage space.

Innovation even continues in the boot of the car, where the designers have introduced a split tailgate ideal for tight town situations with glass that hinges like a hatchback and a drop-down lower tailgate with its own storage compartment.

The car may be compact but the equipment list is not. Everything from air conditioning, electronic parking assistance, remote stereo controls, adjustable steering wheel and an onboard computer through to light sensitive headlamps, rain sensitive wipers and overspeed warning are all available.

The C2 is brimming with safety equipment including ABS with EBD and EBA, automatic hazard warning lights, ESP and traction control, reinforced bars in the doors, a retracting steering column and up to six airbags.

Behind the wheel, drivers will benefit from the variable power assisted steering which, combined with an exceptionally good turning circle, promises to make the car fun to drive and ideal for the urban jungle.

Under the bonnet, C2 will offer up to 110HP, for the 1.6 VTR model up from the 90HP of the Saxo VTR at its launch.

Citron's highly acclaimed 1.4 Hdi diesel engine and 1.1 and 1.4 petrol engines, as well as the company's rally style SensoDrive paddle-shift gearbox, complete the powerplant line-up.

The three door Citron C2 will join the five door C3 and the soon-to-be-launched C3 Pluriel convertible supermini, to give Citron three very different small cars set to appeal to very different customer requirements.