Citroën’s CEO, Xavier Chardon, confirmed in an interview with German fleet publication Autoflotte that the new 2CV will make its debut at the Paris Motor Show this October. The concept, he says, will be “very close to the production model.” Sales follow in 2028, or exactly eighty years after the original premiered at the same show.
The most interesting thing Chardon said about the new electric 2CV is what it will not have. No wall-to-wall screens, and don’t expect 0-100 km/h in five seconds either. The charm will lie in its back-to-basics principle, just like it used to be.
Next to the Panda
The 100% electric city car will be European-built and priced below €15,000 (price without subsidies). Production at Stellantis’ Pomigliano d’Arco plant in southern Italy was already confirmed. This is the same factory that currently assembles the Fiat Panda. A Fiat-badged sibling is also in the pipeline, but its look will be completely different.
Don’t think Citroën is stealing a chapter from Renault’s playbook, which successfully reanimated the R5, R4, and Twingo, but which has decided that the threesome is as far as its retro trend will go.
“We are not doing this out of nostalgia,” Chardon told Autoflotte. “We want to reinterpret the original idea of the 2CV: affordable, simple, emotional mobility for as many people as possible.” He added: “The new 2CV will be deliberately not over-engineered. We will not follow the trend of putting screens everywhere, as some Chinese manufacturers do.”
Low on the price ladder
The original 2CV was built to motorize postwar France from the ground up. The 2026 version targets city commuters who drive daily and can charge at home or at work. These are buyers for whom a €23,000 ë-C3 is already a stretch.
On the price ladder, the 2CV will be positioned below the Renault Twingo, Dacia Spring, and BYD Dolphin Surf. For an electric car built in Europe, this would be an achievement.
That affordability isn’t marketing spin. To British car magazine Autocar, Chardon said that Europe remains the only major market that hasn’t bounced back from the Covid slump: three million fewer new car buyers per year, and 60% of that shortfall traces back to the disappearance of sub-€15,000 cars. The average age of vehicles on European roads has now crossed 12 years. That is exactly the problem the new 2CV intends to fix.
eCar platform
With a little help from Europe. Because the new 2CV will sit inside the EU’s incoming M1E vehicle category, a framework for sub-4.2m, EU-built EVs with reduced ADAS requirements, loosely comparable to Japan’s kei car rules.
It rides on Citroën’s upcoming eCar platform and is expected to carry a small LFP battery of around 20 kWh, well under 100 hp, and the barest trim that still meets European safety standards.
To give you an idea of how basic the brand intends to go: manual windows are reportedly on the table. We’ll have to wait for the Paris Motor Show to see how much Citroën is willing to sacrifice to solve the automotive industry’s affordability crisis.
In the past, several car brands have tried to reinvigorate the 2CV idea, from Citroën itself to Chrysler in the US. You can read about these models here.
