Citroen revives the 2CV for an electric age
(www.bbc.co.uk)
Electric VehiclesI feel like this is like the Rivian, the look grows on you. I wish I could get one in the states :(
Well that interior for certain won't survive contact with reality. Those seats have zero head and neck support. Won't pass minimum safety features list. Those seats are way too low back and no head restraint/support. Plus even if it was legal, 0 stars from Euro-NCAP, when they rear end that car in crash test and the test dummy neck snaps back.
I don't see any interior shots in that article?
Edit: do you just mean the exterior view looking through the car?
This is a concept car, even if it is supposedly already the basis for a production car, those unrealistic aspects are definitely going to go.
I just find it personally highly irritating designers make concepts, that has no basis on reality. Why bother putting in the seat belts, but not the head supports. Since concept car needs no seat belts either. Specially 3 point ones. Like did the designer just like what a 3 point belt line hanging down the B pillar looks like?
So they signal "we know safety is a thing, that exists and must be a concern", but then half ass it.
In practical, overly fancy, with way too much design flair than general public will tolerate I can get. Those are matters of taste mostly. Showing artistic license and maybe looking at feed back of... hey maybe one of our crazy concepts is so popular we make it to production.
But "not at all workable in the first place in reality" is another thing. It tells public nothing of the future and nor is it a good design study, since everyone knows "this whole interior is a whole redo, since it's center pieces, the seats people sit in are just a full no-go".
Those front headlights are a "well thats concept cars being concept cars, those get simplified. It would be way too much engineering and production cost to make those work. One could, but they won't".
That interior is "this is not even a concept of a passenger vehicle, since those seats can not carry road traffic passengers in". It is a vaguely passenger vehicle shaped nostalgic kinetic sculpture.
Oh and all this specially since, I would like to see what their actual take is on how to make a modern working front passenger bench seat. How they marry the old 2CV bench with modern safety design requirements. Atleast on concept. At this stage it doesn't need to be mechanically engineered to actually pass whiplash track without snapping in half. However I would like to see a concept of a design how to make it work on ergonomic and base interior volume packaging level.
Not a fan of the massive emblem but everything else is a YES
Citroen already make a quadricycle called the Ami which is, on my opinion, an absolute slam dunk: cute, absolutely bare bones, super easy to maintain, shockingly practical for it's size and so much fun to drive. If this is built the same way but sold as an actual car rather than a quad it'll be amazing. Fingers crossed.
The Ami, for reference:
Citroen Ami being cute is a new one...although yeah, for what it was designed to do it's perfect. Twerking in front of teslas inclided. xD
Let's hope they remember (other than their colleagues at VW) that a major core premise of the classic cars they are now trying to revive, was not only their distinct design, but also their affordability...
And simplicity
They are aiming for sub 15K. Quite affordable!
Hope that price tag sticks and is more than a marketing price for a hypothetical base model lacking things like a radio, without having to also order something like the "advanced comfort package" for an additional 5000€, or something like that.
I guess that's what passes for affordable nowadays
Competition bicycles can cost that much and those require you to use your legs and contain much less material
An original 1948 base model at launch was about 9,000 in 2026 money. Considering how bare bones the original is compared to modern minimum requirements, I'd say 15K is pretty good!
Yeah, but even a cheap'ish electric bike is 1/10th of that price now.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Best I can do is grossly overpriced luxury item.
It needs to be light, cheap, fun, and not packed with features that no one needs
and with suspension that make it lean ridiculously on corners.
it's so nice going over bumps with it though
Exactly!
The original one is peak-ugly. Anything you do to it is an improvement.
Looking at the recent car designs that generally would fit well onto the streets of Cardassia Prime, the 2CV is peak elegant beauty...
This is both butt ugly and cute as fuck at the same time
Just like the original.
I like it! Design has gotten really homogeneous and I'm enjoying that we're starting to see some things shaking things up a little
I do think them cropping the top of the headlights feels a tad out of place though- the overall shape is too cutesy to me for the way it makes the "face" of the car look to me. But probably they were aiming to temper the cutesy styling so its not overwhelming to folks that doesnt click with
I want them to rotate the tops in slightly to look angry.
Ah that explains why I have been hearing the screams of Clarkson, May and Hammond in the wind.
I feel like it's a missed trick if they don't call this the "2EV".
I'm not wild about the exposed bumpers but kinda like the rest of the design, and it looks like fun.
Yeah but 2EV would be ridiculous to say out loud in France, just like the Toyota MR2 is called MR here because otherwise it would be pronounced "eh merde" (oh shit)
M R deux, merde !!! That’s cool.
New beetlish
Following Renault in reviving classic designs. I dig this trend
The cynic in me predicts that this will not have hydropneumatic suspension (Because us poors can't have nice things).
I do hope I'm wrong though, would be nice at that ~€15,000 range they're aiming for.
The original 2CV never came with hydropneumatic suspension either. The system is way overkill for such a small and light city cruiser.
I thought the reason the 2CV right after WW2 was succesful was because of the hydropneumatic suspension?
Hm, I think you're mixing two cars up. Citroen first tested the hydropneumatic suspension on the Traction Avant in the 50s and it entered production with the DS soon after. The DS was fairly successful thanks to the excellent ride quality. The 2CV was arguably even more successful, but because it was basic, reliable and cheap. These cars were essentially polar opposites and the success of the 2CV and later budget models allowed them to experiment with their cutting-edge executive cars (that they lost a lot of money on in many cases).
They haven't even put that in their regular models in like a decade and his is supposed to be a cheap one :/
Pretty cool. I didn't expect them to lean so far into the classic design, especially with how their other EVs look.
Nice to see them finally have to compete and make what most people actually want, affordable options.
Pull it back and watch it go vroooooooom
I like the idea but why do they have to make these cars look so weird all the time, instead of literally just the same?
It is kinda matte, lower details, no ornaments etc.
Also with the bumper, window frames, lights and rims it looks like a damn toy. Ugly af
It's a nod to the original
Completely agree. This looks like absolute shit, with the added benefit of never being able to pass a safety test.
I want it.
Fugly!
IMO, it looks like a cheap toy version of the real 2CV ... and probably costs 5x as much, even after adjusting for inflation.
