What's all this about?
You probably don't even need us to tell you what this is. Because it's a Citroen 2CV, isn't it? Or rather, to follow the French manufacturer's preferred typesetting, a 2 CV Concept. It's the expected super-affordable EV that's coming to slot into the marque's gap between the preposterous Ami quadricycle and the slightly more conventional e-C3 supermini, but it takes its clear, clear visual inspiration from the classic vehicle which first surfaced in the world almost 70 years ago.
Give me some of the salient points on this cutie pie, then.
At just 3.76 metres long, the 2 CV Concept is actually shorter than the original car, which made its debut at the Paris Motor Show back in 1948; fittingly, this new EV is making its bow at the 2026 edition of the same event. With its smoothed-off looks and brilliantly wacky, bright-coloured interior - complete with little moulded eggs, to mimic the original 2CV's ability to cross a ploughed field with a basket of ouefs onboard without cracking a single one - it's a pure motorshow-concept-car masterpiece, but the production version is less than two years away so it's going to look a lot like this.
Features of the 2 CV Concept include LED lights front and back, the lead items looking much like the round lamps on the original 'Tin Snail', but the slim upright rears are a little bit of a departure from the source material. So, too, are 19-inch wheels, something the classic 2CV never had, but on the new iteration they're steel rims rather than alloys. The whole 2 CV Concept has been designed to be easy to repair if needs be, with detachable bumpers, direct air vents into the cabin under the windscreen, and flat surfaces everywhere you look. And the target weight is just a tonne, although that does mean the battery fitted will be small and cost-effective. So a 350-mile EV marathon runner, this little Citroen surely ain't.
Final flourishes are as follows: there's a retractable fabric roof up top; the horn and the e-motor powering up have been designed to sound like the same things on the old car (and that means the two-cylinder engine, natch); the windscreen wears the numbers '48/90/26', which are the years in which the old car entered production, then slipped off the mortal coil, and then was revived as this EV concept, respectively; and, better than the 1,000kg mission statement, the 2 CV Concept should cost around €15,000 on the continent when it goes on sale in two years' time. Here's hoping the UK price doesn't balloon out of all recognition from there.
Anything else to add?
Xavier Chardon, Citroen's CEO, said: "Reinventing the 2CV isn't about replicating a car from the past; it's about reinventing what made it unique: its simplicity, its accessibility and the freedom it offered. With the 2 CV Concept, we're bringing that spirit into today's world to make electric mobility simpler, more human and more desirable. The world has changed. But the idea remains the same: to make life more beautiful with Citroen."
Matt Robinson - 11 Oct 2026
