With retro design very popular these days and new EU regulations promoting small European EVs, the time may have come for a modern version of the iconic Citroën 2CV. Rumors have it that Citroën wants to surprise everybody at the next Paris Motor Show in October with an entirely new 2CV Concept.
Citroen’s new CEO, Xavier Chardon, has green-lit the concept and locked in its October premiere, to capitalize on new rules currently working their way through the European Commission to incentivize electric city cars.
Citroen’s design team, under the experienced Pierre Leclercq, is hard at work on the show car. The success of the reborn Renault 5, which has landed 120,000 orders until now and has been Europe’s top-selling retail electric car in the segment, illustrates the power of a well-executed ‘neo-retro’ design, as Leclercq himself puts it.
REVOLTe
“We’ve all had a shot at recreating the 2CV,” Leclercq states, referencing the 2009 REVOLTe concept conceived under former Citroen design boss Jean-Pierre Ploué. “It was a modern interpretation of a 2CV, and it was super cool. You cannot say it’s something you won’t try, the same way we tried little H-types or similar things. We tried those projects.”
The REVOLTe was a plug-in hybrid based on a shortened Citroen DS3, which referenced the 2CV with its ‘eye’ headlamps, grille, and exaggerated fenders. But it wasn’t a parody of the original, and that’s the approach Leclercq is championing, taking the 2CV’s primary qualities of affordability, spaciousness, comfort, and fuel efficiency in a modern direction.
“If you think of a 2CV, a cheap car for villages, it’s so important to keep the philosophy and values. If you can reinterpret it in a car today, then let’s do it,” Leclercq adds.
Small car segment
But while the new Renault 5 is the commercial lodestar, the concept of the new 2CV will be closer in size and price to Renault’s 3.8m-long Twingo. This sits on a shortened, simplified version of the 5’s platform, called RGEV Small.
Stellantis Group, of which Citroën is part, has its own low-cost platform architecture, dubbed ‘Smart Car’, which underpins the new C3, C3 Aircross, and Fiat Grande Panda, with a choice between combustion and electric power.
Citroen engineers have been exploring whether the platform is flexible and cost-effective enough to support a city car that would sit between the C3 and the Ami quadricycle. One consideration is whether the structure is strong enough to support a rollback canvas roof, like the original, or whether it will just suggest a grey carbon or reinforced plastic roof.
Affordable, small, and European
Can Renault’s Twingo be used as a benchmark? It has a 27.5 kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery, offering a good 260 km of range, and a detuned electric motor with 59 kW/80 hp and 175 Nm of torque. It will also underpin Dacia’s forthcoming A-segment EV and a Nissan sibling.
Stellantis will seek to deploy its A-segment platform across multiple brands, with Fiat another prime contender given its small-car heritage. The ‘neo-retro’ 2CV will need to conform with the European Commission’s nascent ‘M1E’ category. The regulation is still being worked out, but cars must measure less than 4.2 meters and be assembled within the EU.
Individual countries will be given leeway to financially support battery production within the economic bloc, and Stellantis has already announced a 4.1 billion Euro Spanish joint venture with Chinese battery maker CATL, with its Zaragoza gigafactory due to produce packs by the end of 2026.
The Commission wants to fast-track the supply of homegrown, affordable EVs, filling the EV void beneath €25,000 before subsidies. Assuming the EU ruling is issued by the end of this year, Citroen would strive to have its production version of the 2CV EV ready in 2029.
Earlier tries
Citroën itself has already tried several times to find a modern successor to its iconic car, from the C3 Pluriel to the REVOLTe Concept. The latter didn’t ultimately lead to a new 2CV, but it did inspire the Citroën DS 3.
Other makes that tried to create a similar no-nonsense car were Mazda, whose 121 ‘bowler hat’ was fairly popular in its time (1991-1996), not so much for its technical prowess but for its sympathetic looks.
The closest try (until now) to the original came from Chrysler with its CCV concept (Composite Concept Vehicle, 1997). Chrysler saw its rudimentary CCV as the car for emerging countries and continents, but it never took off. At that time, people in developing countries seeking a relatively affordable car preferred a third- or fourth-hand Peugeot 504/505 or Mercedes 190/E-Class to transport people and goods over deteriorated roads.
