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Gives me hope for an inevitable electric Mazda mx-5 to not suck.

Lighter weight does improve range a bit in stop and go city driving, but not really on longer trips. Once the weight of the car is up to speed, most of the energy is spent fighting aerodynamic drag. Lower weight would probably reduce rolling resistance and has other benefits to vehicle handling and costs.

The original was only a bit over half a tonne at 600 kg.

This one looks about as much like the original 2CV as a BMW Mini looks like an Austin Mini, that is, not very much.

Which "class" is that? A class of concept cars? Because there is exactly zero point zero percent chance that any "wondrous" 2.0CV will survive to production. It won't look like that outside, it won't look like that inside, it won't weigh that much and most certainly it won't cost so low.

It we are being realistic, the real 2.0CV would be much closer to some Citroen C3 with a token styling element outside (maybe a bit arching roof) and a few minimal token styling elements inside, it would be on a standard EV platform and weigh as much as co-platform "brothers" and it would cost 30k+.

The original was - no joke - absolutely mind-blowing off-road. The dumb places we could go in a 2CV when I had abandoned my car way way back...

It will be interesting to see how serviceable it is. The 2CV was pretty famous for being easy to disassemble.

The announced range of this car is 250km / 150 miles

>Lighter weight means better range for a smaller battery

Sadly the way it works with EVs in practice is lighter weight = tiny battery = smaller range.

I, for one, do not want an aggressive BMW SUV tailgating my rearview mirror and I help them fly away by very slowly reducing my speed to the legal minumum

I have been told that supposedly - and take this with a big pinch of salt - this is "what china wants". I.e. aggressive arrogant get out of my way or you'll get hurt vibes.

I am not sure I trust that specifically being about china Vs say US, but there you go.

I was thinking about this last night - the European car industry's ripe for disruption by a nimble car company that can make really basic EVs with none of the pointless, excessive cruft that seems endemic in every new car release.

It's only Dacia who seems to understand that there's big market for basic but half-decent cars that don't bill themselves as infotainment fourth spaces, or whatever the hell it is that they're trying to go for [1].

Give me wind up windows, give me an analogue dashboard, give me a basic interface for my phone, etc.

[1] ok, we know what they're going for - the Euros in our wallets... .

"heritage" isn't about fashion, Citroen is signaling a specific value proposition and ethos through this choice. And also enough commitment to burn their one throw at this target.

They already went a similar direction with the Ami,it was a pretty bold move and it was met with very decent sales https://www.passionnement-citroen.com/post/citroen-ami-premi...

Point taken but I’m pretty sure working class people choose based on initial cost, not bang/range for the buck.

Meanwhile, at least Dutch roads are full of Renault 5 electrics (https://www.renault.nl/elektrische-autos/r5-e-tech-electric....) and FIAT 500's (https://www.fiat.nl/modellen/fiat-500-hybrid).

I agree that vanity cars that are a shitty car that looks like a classic serve little value. However good cars that "interpolate" and reinterpret classics can be absolutely fine; the originals did become classics for a reason.

I think you are wrong, I live in the UK and people around me drive used BMW x5s and Range Rovers both objectively bad vehicles and not best bang for buck.

Car are a fashion statement no matter how much or little wealth you have.

There must be the equivalent for "first as a tragedy then as a comedy" saying for commercial product. "first as a tool then as a totem" or something like that.

> Heritage and vintage looks, will only take you so far.

Amen. A, in this case rather ugly, restyling of a wheeled smartphone is not something I have an interest in. That's why you need the people that work on designing and signing-off (on) the thing understand what made the original such an oustanding design in the first place.

Citroen is already the Stellantis' equivalent of Skoda niche for Volkswagen.

I feel like the Mustang has been able to go pretty far on heritage and vintage looks.

> I've always been amazed why the 2CV is seen as a styling icon.

It's because the design was simple and cheap but effective. It's a distinctive, original design that was bought by everyone from farmers to the aristocracy.

Take the badge off that BYD and you would struggle to tell it apart from any other soulless boring car. In 5 years time BYD will have changed the design with nothing retained and still nothing distinctive about it.

This new 2CV on the other hand is very distinctive to the point where some will love it and some will hate it.

It's a good cheap, small car that will be easy to drive in cities. It's also "classless" car in the best sense.

Some people will want it regardless of how much money they have. It's the opposite of "try hard". You'd only buy a Seagull because you can't afford something better (from BYD or anyone else).

> No one is clamoring for an electric $50K VW Rabbit (VW Golf).

Actually the electric Golf (Rabbit) already exists, it's called an ID.3. It's about the 5th best selling electric car in Europe so it's, apparently, exactly what a lot of people want.

I think a lot of the popular classics are often because they were unique, not necessarily beautiful, and often the most popular tend to be some of the most ubiquitous models that were designed for the everyman, e.g. the 2CV, VW Beetle, VW Camper etc. I suspect they become stylish by association with the periods in which they were popular and the people who owned them, rather than because their own styling is great.

I always thought the Citroen vans of the era were very cool, I'd love to see a modern van design based on the H, for example.

> I've always been amazed why the 2CV is seen as a styling icon.

You could ask the same about the Opinel No. 8 knife. Same thing since 1890s, one minor update every 50 years or so. It's still sold by the bucketload today for about €10.

It's just French, the same way a Lada is just Russian, a Mini Cooper is British or a Fiat 500 is Italian. It's part of post-WW2 cars that were cheap to buy, cheap to operate, cheap to fix and with production numbers in the millions.

I never thought of the 2CV as a style icon - more a statement of practical minimalism. Make it so simple that it's cheap, there is less to break, and you may be able to fix it yourself. Picnic bench included.

I'd be very happy to buy a $15-20K modern electric minimalist equivalent, although I'd prefer boring normal Nissan Versa type styling, not 2CV quirkiness or the chopped 2+2 sub-compact car look.

There's no new electric car for less than €17800, in the Netherlands at least. The BYD's start at around €20k. Only the Dacia Spring and the Leapmotor T03 are available under that price point. So if something was to be available for €15k and if it's highway capable, I'm sure it will sell decently well.

Citroen have always been distinctive "love it or hate it" about their looks, but in this case they've seen what Renault are doing (selling 5's as fast as they can make them) and decided to get in on the action by doing a similar retro reference.

> No one is clamoring for an electric $50K VW Rabbit (VW Golf).

https://cleantechnica.com/2026/10/03/europe-ev-sales-report-...

The ID4 is about Golf-sized, costs about 45kE, and is sitting at #6 on the EV sales chart.

(see also: Renault Twingo, Dacia (Renault Romanian subsidiary) Spring)

"I've always been amazed why the 2CV is seen as a styling icon."

Style icon? Maybe you are thinking of the DS.

The 2CV was commonly considered ugly so much that in Germany it was only known as Ugly Duckling, despite being a popular car there.

> The Chinese BYD Seagull is a real car for $10,000 which is quite large to boot.

I think the Seagull cost ~20 000 to 22 000 EUR in a lot of European countries. Who knows what the Citroen 2CV will cost in china.

> The Chinese BYD Seagull is a real car for $10,000 which is quite large to boot.

There are segments (like urban daily driver) where “quite large” is not a selling point.

The proposed M1E car category in the EU (more or less the european equivalent to the japanese kei cars) might boost this segment of smaller, cheaper cars.

What I would like is a small EV (whats small now was family hatchback 15 years ago)

A lot of EVs are fucking huge, the renault 5/zoe for me is the sweet spot.

I like the 2cv, I really hope it has the pneumatic suspension, or atleast the soft suspension of its predecessor

> No one is clamoring for an electric $50K VW Rabbit (VW Golf).

I don't know if anyone's clamouring, but ysk there exists a $50K PHEV Golf

>I've always been amazed why the 2CV is seen as a styling icon

Round curves and lights looking like eyes, with proportions close to a human face.

The same design cues that made the VW Beetle and the Mazda Miata (1st gen) popular cars.

And "barebones" can be a quality. Citroen did tons of overcomplicated cars too, and for all the love I have towards the DS, the CX, the SM etc., they all suffered and keep suffering of reliability problems that killed them commercially and to keep them running nowadays.

I liked their old advert about how the 2CV had an automatic sunroof: "You automatically open it when the sun is shining".

> I missed the part that Stelantis bought everything that is not VW.

… for now

If they actually deliver something for their target price of around £13k then I'd be very impressed - that would truly be embracing the 2CV heritage in making something attainable for the people.

And agreed, I quite like this design. It doesn't feel as bulky as many modern "retro" cars, like the Mini variants.

I think it's cool. One of my favorite things about the 2CV is how modular they are. There was a Mythbuster's episode where they tried to convert one into a motorcycle using only hand tools and it was pretty amazing just how far they got.

I think it's very cool that Citroen is bringing it back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bRJL_AjJjw

Point is: those cars differentiate little to nothing among themselves except in design gimmicks.

The latest Grande Panda is an example of that.

Eh, you're just being pushed out into hatchbacks instead. I can hardly think of a scenario where I'd want an A-segment car instead of a small hatchback (e.g. VW Polo or Ford Fiesta) anyway. Obviously, that's just my opinion.

I worked in the industry. It would have been really hard for China not to do better. Like really hard. They allocated 2 years, 150 people for a device that already existed but needed to be adapted to a different customer. It took 2.5 years. No improvements added. Every single manager in those companies is very political, no skills, technical or otherwise. So if chinese hired 20 competent people, gave them training on the industry's specific tools, they are already ahead.

They have dark factories ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCBdcNA_FsI

Look at the population of your country. Look at the population of China.

The concept art looks wonderfully playful, but it won't ever ship like that. Take the seats for example, they have no headrest. Safety standard will not allow the car to ship like that. I don't suggest that this is a bad thing, but the "correct" solution would be to design custom seat that fit the style, but that's not a financially sane solution. So the 2CV will, if it's build, have standard Citroen seats, losing fun and appealing bench seat in the front.

That stood out for me too. It just wouldn't be allowed. They will surely get added on later.

It's a concept car. It might have been designed by a number of interns and any of the numbers including price, performance, range are to a large degree guessed or calculated from theoreticals.

First thing I always look for in new car announcement, the dreaded "concept car". Then you can close the page pretty much.

The problem in this case (and many others) is that nostalgia is limited to the form, bordering on fetishism, while the utilitarian and economic aspects of the original are brushed aside.

From TFA: "The car had high wheel arches and soft suspension, letting it travel across a ploughed field or rough roads - as legend would have it, without breaking a tray of duck eggs. Its high roof let drivers wear a hat at the wheel. It was easy to drive and simple to repair."

Which of those qualities have been retained in this 2CV revival?

True, those are the most honest and least horrible car wheels I've seen for a long time. Everything else has pretentious alloys in a unique but meaningless swirl or flower shape.

I dislike the rigidity-giving ridges, though, those are echoing a distinctive feature of the 2CV but are surely non-functional this time around. The ridges are a lie.

Which are your favorite to be hit by?

I disagree. I think the current crop from Renault are really good.

The Renault 5, Renault 4 and Renault Megan are class leading and have some style about them.

I just wish they came with better privacy controls but then all the car manufactures are operating a cartel when it comes to surveillance.

I would be more precise and say since June 2012, when the last Twingo 1 was produced.

Mais laisse-les acheter !