The Citroen C5 Aircross SUV has been unveiled in China, on the eve of the Shanghai Auto Show, looking as fresh as a strawberry in this bright red color. It has a distinctive nose with two grilles, small LED lights, and gray frames in the bumper that do not really hold anything.

It has three air cushions on the doors, the front one with a gray frame, the c-pillar is heavily chromed, and there are proper roof rails on the roof.

The C5 Aircross is based on the PSA EMP2 platform which also underpins the Peugeot 4008, known as 3008 elsewhere.

At launch the C5 Aircross will be available with the same engines as the 3008/4008: a 1.6 turbo with 167hp and 245nm, and a 1.8 turbo with 204hp and 280nm, both mated to a six-speed automatic. Sources say that Citroen is working on a 2.0 turbo version, a hybrid, and an LWB seven-seat version (like the Tiguan L / Allspace).

Price will start around 195.000 yuan and end around 290.000 yuan, it will hit the market later this year. The Chinese name is Tianyi. It is made locally by Dongfeng-PSA, the joint venture that also makes the 4008.

We don’t have live pics of the interior yet so for now we got to do with these factory images.

Interior is brilliant in brown! Loads of leather everywhere. Digital instrument panel and a 10 inch touch screen in the middle. I love the air vents; each vent is split in two parts and housed in a matte chrome frame. Center tunnel is very clean with a trendy little stick.

The air cushion theme comes back on the seats and on the doors.

Photoshopped on the Bund in Shanghai. Brown trim on doors looks fantastic. Large sun roof to look at the heavens.

Beautiful lights and a black D-pillar. The exhaust pipes look nice here. They are somewhat integrated in the bumper and they have a rectangular shape. But when you buy the low-spec version you will get this horror.

See? The frames don’t hold anything, the are pasted on the bumper. Just for pretty.

Hmm hmm. Now there seems something odd with those pipes again. The one on the left seems bigger and of a slightly different shape. Check:

Why can’t Citroen its pipes right? Very wuzzy.

Nose looks even heavier in white, but this version has orange frames, and that is kind of cool. More orange on the roof rails.