Oh, Citroën, you tease! I hope you’re not playing with my feelings here. The company has been teasing the idea of a re-born 2CV since this summer, and in the past week or so they’ve really pushed the throttle on the flat-twin of their PR department, which has been issuing a whole series of citrus-hued teaser images of the upcoming concept car, a concept that will hopefully lead to a production car. I’m excited.
The promise has been that the car will be an unashamed retro tribute to the original deux chevaux, and, perhaps more importantly, will keep to the spirit of the original car by being actually cheap. Early pricing estimates were targeting under €15,000. That’s under $17,500 in Freedom Eagle Bucks, which is gleefully cheap for a modern EV. I hope they can stick to that.
The earlier teaser image was a shadowy full-car picture, basically a silhouette:
That definitely feels like a re-born 2CV, at least in general shape. This new batch of teaser images is more about details, along with some slightly cryptic images that hint at 2CV lore. Like this one, which is pretty easy:
Two chess knights. Is that a reference to Two Nights in Bangkok, from the musical Chess? Wait that was just one night, and I’m being silly. This is clearly a reference to two horses, the deux chevaux from the old tax scheme where the car was rated at two steam horses, and from there where the car got its name.
Here, you can see all of the teasers from Citroën’s Instagram here:
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That one is pretty clear, referencing the old corrugated “ripple bonnet” used until 1960, and then those knights.
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There’s the hood and headlight teaser; I think this may be the first modern EV to pretend to have non-integrated headlamps of any sort.
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Then we have the wheels, which definitely look like the original wheels, though they’ve added a decadent fourth bolt, which feels like showy ostentation, but whatever. People today are too soft to really appreciate three-lug wheels, I guess. And the venting suggests brakes won’t be inboard this time around.
The next image in the post seems to show a marker lamp on the C-pillar that evokes how early 2CV turn signals were mounted high on that pillar, where they could be seen from the front or rear, allowing for only two instead of four, a tribute to Citroën’s legendary skinflintitude.
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The umbrella is a reference to the original design brief for the car from Pierre-Jules Boulanger, who started the whole thing with his “Très Petite Voiture” (TPV, for “very small car”) program, and famously described what he wanted as “an umbrella on four wheels”or sometimes as “four seats under an umbrella.”
The other image is a door handle that looks surprisingly and wonderfully like the original 2CV’s furniture-like small door handles.
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And finally, these eggs, a reference to the 2CV’s original design brief that included the demand that the car should be able to transport a basket of eggs on the seat over a plowed field without breaking a single egg. Remember, this was a car designed to replace horses and carts for French peasants, and this is also why the suspension of a 2CV is so legendarily soft.
I like how much Citroën is playing with the car’s extensive lore with these; here, I even made a chart so you can see all the references in one easy location:
I hope that helps! Maybe print it out on some foldable or rollable receipt-type paper so you can pull it out and reference it as the need arises.
The official reveal for this resurrected 2CV is October 11; so many times these kinds of things are a letdown, but I’m still hopeful here. I don’t mind an EV take on the 2CV; I think if electric motors and batteries were cheap and usable enough back in the 1930s when the 2CV was being designed, they’d have been considered. If they work now, great.
I think the crucial concept to keep is one of simplicity. If Citroën can keep that at the forefront, and make something that genuinely adheres to the original 2CV’s core character traits of reliability and extreme affordability and classlessness and unpretentiousness, and is not just some neo-retro-designed pastiche, then I think they can really have something.
At least that’s what I hope! I think hoping it’ll come to America is a little too far, but for the rest? I think there’s a chance.
More automotive vapor.. could be cool though.I’ll chalk this up with the new REO truck.
I don’t think so as this is by a large manufacture with worldwide resources.
I hope the production car isn’t just a small chap EV with 2Cv reference, Citroen has made very clever cars recently, the cactus being a good example.
Was that Two Knights in Bangkok thing just an excuse to link to the video?
Just when I thought I Know Him So Well, something like that happens . Pity the Child.
Sorry Torch, I’m on Nobody’s Side.
(Yes, all, it’s one of my favorite soundtracks – the original London recording, anyway.)
It’d be so nice for this to come here. While the majority are clearly to dull to realize it, all 99% of us Americans need for 99% of the driving we do every day is something inexpensive that can get to (and maintain) highway speeds while not feeling like a small gust of wind will put you in a ditch (issue I had with the Smart ForTwo), maybe ~100 mile range (the average commute in this country is 54 miles round trip, so this would give a bit extra for after work trips to get groceries and such), and the ability to get that 100 mile range refilled overnight on a standard 110v outlet. It’d be amazing to have a daily driver that fit those qualifications.
Since the 2CV always was so easy to work on, I’m looking forward to a back-to-basics and right-to-repair inspired construction. How about a easy detachable and upgradable battery-pack, like Gouach have done with their Infinite Battery for e-bikes? Or electronics built on Rasberry Pi? With an almost unlimited scope for reapir, customization and upgradability? 3D printed parts body parts, or maybe they can be made by hand?
Perhaps going too far with the nostalgia with exposed wiper pivots, or have they figured out a cunning wheeze to stop them braining pedestrians in a collision?
Between this and the new Multipla, the Paris motor show is shaping up to be the one to watch this year. Going to eventually need to move to Europe where vehicle tastes more align with my own.
Someone else will remember better than I, but way back in the 90s, Chrysler built a very 2CV derived concept car. I remember it being a faithful update.
https://www.theautopian.com/that-time-chrysler-made-a-better-1990s-citroen-2cv-than-citroen-did/
Yes, that one. Thanks for finding it!
Welcome!
For quite a few years now, three of the top four automakers that I wish would come/return to the American market are French, with the other one being Suzuki.
It usually takes some miles on the odometer (age) before one grows enough to truly appreciate French automobilia. 😉
This will either be rubbish or amazing, there is no in between. I’m leaning towards amazing.
Now all the need to do is ensure the real car looks like the concept, like Renault did with the Twingo.
Oh, I wish we could get the Twingo here in the US.
It is citroen we are talking about here.
It will be amazing rubbish.
Pierre-Jules Boulanger, who started the whole thing with his “Très Petite Voiture” (TPV, for “very small car”) program
Sorry to nit-pick here. It’s «Toute Petite Voiture» – translating roughly to “really small car” (literally “wholly small car”). That version sounds even smaller to French and German ears. 😉
Is it going to have “picnic seats”? Maybe add a removable basket for wine and baguettes in there somewhere as well. Hell, just have a wine-dispenser mounted in the dash and a bread oven. I mean, if we’re going to add a forth lug, may as well crank the decadence to “onze”.