Citroën has pulled the cover off an electric reincarnation of the 2CV, one of the most cherished vehicles ever built in Europe. The French automaker unveiled the concept ahead of the Paris Motor Show, and it says a production version will follow in 2028 with a starting price of around €15,000, or just under $17,000. In an EV market that still struggles to produce genuinely small, affordable, and desirable electric cars, the new Deux Chevaux could be the rare battery-powered model that wins buyers over with charm as much as specification.
The 2CV Legacy: A Car Born From a Basket of Eggs
For the entire second half of the 20th century, the Citroën 2CV occupied a singular place in Europe’s automotive landscape. It was affordable, comfortable, and hopelessly underpowered, yet it sold in the millions over a production run that stretched from 1948 to 1990. Its recipe was deceptively simple: keep the car small, keep it cheap, and make it capable of carrying a family of four without demanding much in return.
The recipe is fundamentally right: take an icon, make it electric, keep it small and light, and price it for the people.
The “2CV” badge, French for “two horses,” was always a little misleading. The original car produced more than two horsepower — usually much more, ranging from 9 to 29hp over the course of its 42-year life — but the name came from France’s vehicle tax system, which calculated “tax horsepower” using a deliberately arcane formula. The result was an icon of understatement: a car that promised little and delivered exactly that, with charm to spare.
The engineering brief behind the original is now the stuff of legend. Citroën wanted the car to cross a plowed field in rural France with a basket of eggs intact, so it developed a uniquely soft and long-travel suspension. That suspension gave the 2CV its tall, rounded, cartoon-like cabin, its jaunty circular headlights, and its famous pop-up windows. It also allowed the car to ride with a suppleness that far more expensive vehicles couldn’t match.
What is the Citroën 2CV?
The Citroën 2CV, whose name means “two horses” in French, is a small, affordable car produced by Citroën from 1948 to 1990. It was designed for rural France, with a soft suspension intended to carry four people and a basket of eggs across a plowed field without breaking anything. Millions were sold, and the car became one of the most recognizable and beloved vehicles in automotive history, often described as France’s answer to the Volkswagen Beetle.
Production ended in 1990, but the 2CV never really vanished. Well-loved examples still appear on roads worldwide, and even in California, DIY electric conversions of the old car show up from time to time. Now the company that built it is turning the nameplate toward the electric era.
Smarter, Shorter, and Wired: How the 2CV Has Changed
The new concept is unmistakably a 2CV, but it is not a faithful reproduction or a retro replica. Citroën has kept the general proportions — the tall, friendly cabin and upright stance — and then redrawn nearly everything else for a more modern, slightly more conventional eye.
Up front, the hood is taller and boxier than any 2CV ever was. The cockpit has lost some of its jaunty character. The wheel arches sit much lower over the tires, and the rear fender skirts are gone entirely. The iconic pop-up windows have been replaced by conventional roll-down units. In other words, this is the 2CV translated for a new era — electrified, modernized, and dressed in concept-car technology rather than the agricultural minimalism of the original.
Not everything changed, and the retained features are the ones that mattered most to enthusiasts. The giant fabric roof is back and still rolls all the way open, preserving one of the 2CV’s greatest open-air pleasures. The concept is also genuinely small — four inches shorter than the old 2CV, remarkably, given how much modern safety equipment and structural engineering a car must now accommodate. And in a clever nod to the past, the car has a pop-up vent to pull fresh air into the cabin, echoing the original’s swinging side windows without the complexity.
Some details suggest Citroën is still calibrating the look. The concept rides on 19-inch wheels, which look large for such a compact body and make the low arches seem even lower. Those wheels may well shrink for production, which would improve ride comfort and lower cost — two priorities that matter more to the 2CV’s mission than visual drama.
€15,000 and 1,000kg: The Math Behind an Affordable EV
For a vehicle carrying this much nostalgia, the most important number isn’t horsepower or even range — it’s the price. Citroën is targeting a starting price of around €15,000, or just under $17,000. In a European market where the average new EV still costs more than twice that, the target is striking.
The path to that price runs through weight. Citroën is aiming to keep the car at roughly 1,000 kilograms, or about 2,205 pounds — lighter than a current Mazda MX-5. That’s a notable achievement for any modern car, and an especially ambitious one for an EV, which must carry a battery pack along with the usual structure, glass, seats, and safety gear.
Weight is the enemy of EV affordability. A lighter car needs a smaller battery, and a smaller battery is the single most effective way to cut cost. Every kilogram Citroën manages to trim makes the €15,000 price target more credible and the car more efficient in daily use.
There is also a philosophical continuity here. The original 2CV was never about technology for its own sake or about showing off. It was about doing the necessary things exceptionally well at a price ordinary people could afford. If Citroën can hold that line, avoiding the temptation to load the car with expensive hardware, the electric 2CV will honor its ancestor in the way that matters most. If it can’t, the car risks becoming just another retro-styled urban runabout.
How much power will the electric 2CV have?
Citroën has not confirmed powertrain specifications for the electric 2CV concept. The original 2CV made between 9 and 29 horsepower over its production run, and the new concept sits between Citroën’s 8hp Ami and 113hp C3 in size, which suggests a modest output focused on efficiency and affordability rather than performance.
The badge on the rear of the concept is a hint in itself. The “2CV” designation has always been a wink at the car’s modest ambitions, and the electric version is expected to be more powerful than any 2CV in history — but no speed demon. That’s perfectly consistent with the car’s positioning as an affordable, approachable city vehicle.
Battery and Range: The Rural-to-Urban Question
Battery size remains an open question. The original 2CV was conceived as a rural vehicle, built to carry four people and their luggage across the French countryside, which would suggest a battery large enough for genuine intercity travel and a car that remains usable in areas where charging infrastructure is thin.
But the modern reading of a tiny, affordable car points in a different direction. Today, a vehicle like this is far more likely to be sold as a city car. Urban commutes are short, charging opportunities are more concentrated, and buyers of small EVs typically care more about low running costs than about long-distance capability.
The concept’s low wheel arches suggest a car designed for pavement rather than plowed fields — a sign that Citroën may have chosen the urban mission. Or it could simply be an acknowledgment that French roads have improved considerably since 1948. Either way, the competitive benchmark is fairly consistent: similar small urban EVs tend to offer roughly 30kWh batteries and around 250km, or about 150 miles, of range. The electric 2CV will probably need to match that to be taken seriously against established rivals.
Inside: Spartan, Playful, and Built Around People
With a 1,000kg weight budget and a €15,000 price target, there’s not much room for extravagance inside the 2CV — and that’s the point. The concept’s interior is sparse and open, using the small footprint wisely to prioritize passenger space over gadgetry. The vibe is honest, utilitarian, and surprisingly warm.
The visible technology is minimal: a small tablet-like screen attached to the steering column, a wide driver display running across the dashboard, and a removable radio and speaker module on the passenger side. There is no giant central touchscreen dominating the cabin, no gesture controls, no digital clutter. Just the essentials, presented in a way that feels deliberate rather than deprived.
The playful touches are where the concept truly connects with its ancestor. A basket sits in the middle of the cabin, directly referencing the original’s “basket of eggs” design brief. The door pockets even have cutouts designed to hold half a dozen eggs, as if Citroën wants to make sure you never forget where this car came from.
One important caveat: the concept’s much shorter suspension travel means it is not nearly as well suited to protecting those eggs as the original was. The new car may acknowledge the legend, but it doesn’t replicate the engineering compromise that made the legend possible. Nor will the show car’s vibrant concept colors and hanging lights make the jump to production, which is probably for the best. What likely remains is the design direction: a sparse, open interior that makes room for people instead of tech flourishes.
From Show Car to Showroom: The Road to 2028
Automakers show concepts with production promises all the time; rarely do they attach a date as specific as Citroën has here. The company says it intends to have the 2CV for sale and on the road in 2028. That is an aggressive timeline, and it suggests the concept is closer to the intended production formula than most show cars.
What changes between now and 2028? The usual suspects: more conventional styling details, more restrained interior materials, and wheels that make sense for a car of this size. The production version will almost certainly lose the hanging lights, the wildest colors, and maybe the egg pockets. Each simplification serves the same purpose that drove the original 2CV — fewer custom parts, simpler manufacturing, and a better chance of holding the line on price.
That cost discipline is the true essence of the Deux Chevaux name. The 2CV was never a halo car or a technology showcase. It was the everyman’s workhorse, France’s answer to the Volkswagen Beetle, a vehicle that just did what it needed to do — cheaply, comfortably, and with an unmistakable personality. If Citroën can deliver that spirit with an electric powertrain, while preserving any meaningful amount of the original’s charm, it could have an instant classic on its hands.
Europe Needs a €15,000 EV With a Familiar Face
The timing of this unveiling is strategically important. Automakers across Europe have spent years struggling to build small EVs profitably, and the market’s cheapest electric options remain limited and often compromised. A €15,000 electric car with real passenger space, a trusted nameplate, and the emotional pull of the 2CV would be a significant step toward democratizing electric mobility in the region.
Citroën has already demonstrated with the Ami — a barely-powered quadricycle with a ruthlessly simplified specification — that it can build and sell an EV at a rock-bottom price. The 2CV concept represents a far more ambitious version of that idea: a proper car, not a microcar, with the nostalgic resonance of one of the most beloved vehicles in French history.
The pressure now shifts to execution. Can Citroën hit 1,000kg in production form? Can it source a battery at a low enough cost to protect the €15,000 price point? Can it keep the production car as charming as the concept without letting costs spiral? These are difficult questions, but they are also precisely the questions the original 2CV was designed to answer in 1948. The car’s entire legacy rests on solving them.
The electric 2CV faces a long road between the Paris Motor Show’s spotlights and a production line in 2028. There will be engineering compromises, cost pressures, and design fade along the way. But the recipe is fundamentally right: take an icon, make it electric, keep it small and light, and price it for the people. That has been the soul of the 2CV from the very beginning. Whether Citroën can hold the course — and whether Europe’s buyers will fall for the Deux Chevaux all over again, half a century after millions of drivers did the same — will be one of the most closely watched stories in the electric vehicle market over the next two years.
- What is the Citroën 2CV?The Citroën 2CV is a small, affordable car produced from 1948 to 1990, designed for rural France with a soft suspension.
- What is the price of the electric 2CV concept?The electric 2CV concept has a starting price of around €15,000.
