Citroën 2CV Is Back as an Electric Car — Under €15,000 and Coming in 2028

To understand why the new 2CV announcement drew applause from financial analysts who had sat through hours of corporate strategy presentations, you need to understand what the original was. The Citroën 2CV — Deux Chevaux, meaning two horsepower — was launched at the Paris Motor Show in October 1948. It was designed with a single purpose: to put rural France behind a steering wheel. Post-war France was impoverished, its roads were poor and its citizens needed affordable, reliable transportation more than anything else the automotive industry could offer.

The original brief was almost brutally specific: carry four people and 50kg of produce at 60km/h, achieve 3 litres per 100km of fuel consumption, be simple enough for a farmer with no mechanical experience to maintain, and cost as little as possible. The result was one of the most beloved cars in automotive history. Soft, undulating suspension that could carry eggs across a ploughed field without breaking them. An air-cooled flat-twin engine with fewer moving parts than any contemporary rival. A canvas roll-back roof for maximum ventilation in summer. A body held together with bolts rather than welds so that any panel could be replaced in minutes. Nine million sold across 42 years. More than any other car in French history.

The new 2CV carries the same brief into 2026. Not four people and 50kg of produce across a ploughed field. But affordable, simple, practical electric mobility — priced at under €15,000 — at a time when the average new car in Europe costs over €35,000 and even the cheapest electric cars start at €17,000 or more. The brief has not changed. The technology has.

At the Stellantis Investor Day in Auburn Hills on May 21, Citroën CEO Xavier Chardon made three specific confirmations. First: the 2CV is returning as a fully electric car. Second: it will be priced under €15,000 — making it the most affordable new electric vehicle available in Europe when it launches. Third: a concept version will be revealed at the Paris Motor Show in October 2026 — the same venue where the original 2CV made its debut in 1948, exactly 78 years earlier. The symmetry is not accidental.

Stellantis also projected a shadowy teaser image of the new 2CV — enough to confirm that the design does not try to disguise its heritage. The original 2CV's form factor returns: flared wheelarches, a tall horseshoe-shaped rear window, a high roofline providing outstanding headroom and the distinctive overall silhouette that made the original instantly recognisable from any angle. This is not a car that borrows the 2CV name for marketing purposes. It is a car that is genuinely trying to be a 2CV — in electric form, for a new generation, at the same philosophy of maximum accessibility for minimum cost.

Citroën has confirmed the price target and the platform. Full specifications will follow at the Paris Motor Show concept reveal in October 2026. Based on the platform and engineering targets confirmed so far, the technical picture is as follows.

The new 2CV is built on Stellantis's E-Car project platform — a purpose-built architecture for ultra-affordable European electric vehicles, developed in partnership with Leapmotor, the Chinese EV brand in which Stellantis holds a significant stake. The platform is designed specifically for sub-€15,000 pricing — every component choice, every supplier relationship, every manufacturing decision optimised for the lowest possible cost without compromising on the durability and repairability that the 2CV name demands. Production will be in Italy — within the EU, as required by the European Commission's nascent M1E vehicle category regulations, which mandate European assembly for vehicles in this price band to qualify for national EV subsidies.

The expected specification includes an 80hp electric motor, a 27.5kWh LFP battery — lithium iron phosphate, chosen for longevity, thermal stability and cost over energy density — and a WLTP range of up to 263km. That range figure positions the new 2CV directly against the Renault Twingo Electric — currently the closest European rival — which offers approximately 270km of WLTP range from a start price of €17,463. The new 2CV will undercut the Twingo by approximately €2,500 while matching it on range. That is the competitive gap Citroën is targeting.

Citroën has been explicit that the new 2CV's design philosophy is not purely retro. It is functional. The original 2CV's tall roofline existed not for aesthetics but because it maximised interior space in a small footprint. The large glass area existed not for style but because it maximised natural light and reduced the need for artificial lighting inside. The canvas roof existed not as a luxury feature but because it was the simplest, lightest and most affordable way to open a car to the air. Every design decision in the original had a rational, cost-driven justification — and the design happened to be charming as a consequence.

The new 2CV will follow the same logic. Repairability is a confirmed priority — Citroën has stated that the car will be designed so that individual panels can be replaced easily, reducing the cost of accident repair and extending the vehicle's useful life. Simplicity means fewer electronic systems, fewer complex mechanisms and a focus on the features buyers actually use rather than the features that create impressive specification lists. Versatility means a design that works as a city car, a small family car, a commuter vehicle and a weekend runabout without compromise in any of those roles.

The M1E vehicle category — the new European regulatory framework being developed specifically for affordable urban EVs — provides the legal context for the 2CV's design constraints. Cars in the M1E category must measure under 4.2 metres and be assembled within the EU. The new 2CV, at an expected length of approximately 3.8-3.9 metres, comfortably meets the first criterion. Italian production meets the second. Both requirements are matched by design rather than by accident.

The LFP battery in the new 2CV will use cells from CATL — the world's largest battery manufacturer — produced at a new Stellantis-CATL joint venture gigafactory in Zaragoza, Spain. This facility, which represents a €4.1 billion investment, is scheduled to begin production before the end of 2026 — meaning the 2CV's battery will be manufactured within the EU, from a plant that qualifies for European battery subsidies and that supports Stellantis's commitment to European supply chain independence.

LFP chemistry was chosen deliberately over the NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) batteries used in most premium EVs. LFP cells have lower energy density — meaning more battery volume for the same range — but are significantly more thermally stable, require no active cooling in normal use, degrade more slowly over charging cycles and cost less per kilowatt-hour to produce. For a car targeting a €15,000 price point where every euro in the bill of materials matters, LFP is the rational choice. The 2CV does not need 400 miles of range. It needs 163 miles of reliable, long-lived, affordable range — and that is exactly what 27.5kWh of LFP delivers.

The new 2CV's competitive position is genuinely unique — there is no current electric car that matches its combination of price, range, European manufacture and brand heritage. The closest rivals are the Renault Twingo Electric (€17,463 — 270km range), the Citroën ë-C3 (from €23,300 — 326km range) and the Dacia Spring (from €16,990 — 220km range). The new 2CV at under €15,000 undercuts all three. With 263km of range, it beats the Spring and comes close to the Twingo.

The Renault 5 E-Tech — the other great French electric revival — starts at approximately €25,000 and offers 300km of range. It is a significantly more sophisticated car. It is also €10,000 more expensive. For buyers who want a car that gets them to work and back for five days on a single charge, parks easily in tight city spaces and costs less than €15,000 new — the new 2CV will not have a direct competitor. That gap in the market is precisely why Citroën is building it.

Name	Citroën 2CV (new generation)
Powertrain	100% electric
Platform	Stellantis E-Car project — Leapmotor partnership
Motor (est.)	~80hp electric
Battery	27.5kWh LFP — CATL cells
Battery Source	Stellantis-CATL gigafactory — Zaragoza, Spain
WLTP Range (est.)	Up to 263km (~163 miles)
Design	Neo-retro — original 2CV silhouette — flared arches — horseshoe rear
Length (est.)	~3.8–3.9 metres
Production	Italy — EU assembly — M1E category compliant
Key Design Values	Simplicity, repairability, versatility
Roof	Canvas roll-back — expected to return
EU Price Target	Under €15,000 — cheapest new EV in Europe
UK Price (est.)	~£13,000
Concept Reveal	Paris Motor Show — October 2026
On Sale	2028 — Europe first
Teased At	Stellantis Investor Day — Auburn Hills — May 21 2026
Analyst Reaction	Round of applause at Investor Day announcement
Original 2CV Production	1948–1990 — 9 million units — Paris Motor Show debut
Closest Rival	Renault Twingo Electric — €17,463 — 270km — undercut by ~€2,500

The original 2CV's genius was its refusal to treat affordability as a compromise. Every decision — the air-cooled engine, the canvas roof, the bolt-on panels, the interconnected suspension — was made because it was the best solution for the problem the car was solving, not because it was the cheapest available shortcut. The result was a car that was genuinely excellent at being what it was — not a stripped-out version of a better car, but a fully resolved expression of a clear philosophy.

That philosophy is what makes the new 2CV genuinely interesting rather than merely nostalgic. Citroën is not bringing back a retro design to capitalise on heritage. It is asking the same question the original designers asked in 1948 — how do you give the maximum number of people access to personal mobility? — and answering it with the technology available in 2026. The answer is a 27.5kWh LFP battery, a CATL-supplied cell, an Italian-made body, a canvas roof and a price tag under €15,000. Whether the new 2CV is as elegant an answer as the original remains to be seen in October. But the question it is asking is exactly right.

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Citroën has confirmed that the new 2CV will be priced under €15,000 in Europe — a target that, if achieved, will make it the most affordable new electric car available on the continent. Individual European countries will be able to supplement this with national EV purchase subsidies under the M1E framework — potentially bringing the effective purchase price below €12,000 in markets with generous subsidy schemes. The concept is revealed at the Paris Motor Show in October 2026. Production begins in Italy for a 2028 European launch. UK availability has not been confirmed — but given the 2CV's extraordinary emotional resonance in Britain, it would be a significant omission if it were not offered here.