But while the new Renault 5 is the commercial lodestar, the concept will be closer in size and price to Renault’s forthcoming, £17,000 3.8m-long Twingo.
Stellantis announced a new global vehicle architecture, STLA One, as part of its investor day presentation. But the Citroen – and its Fiat sibling – will sit on a bespoke, low-cost ‘E-Car’ architecture. It’s sufficiently different from the ‘Smart Car’ platform, underpinning the new C3, C3 Aircross and Fiat Grande Panda and packing combustion and electric power, to get an all-new architecture designation. It’s certain to use lower cost LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries, and Stellantis’s Chinese joint-venture partner Leapmotor will be feeding into the programme to keep costs down. The replacement for its T03 electric city car is likely to come from the E-car project.
What sort of range and power can we expect?
Renault’s Twingo benchmark has a 27.5kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, mustering 163 miles of range, and a detuned electric motor with 80bhp and 175Nm of torque. It will also underpin Dacia’s forthcoming A-segment EV and a Nissan sibling.
The ‘neo-retro’ 2CV will need to conform with the European Commission’s nascent ‘M1E’ category. The regulation is still being hammered out, but cars must measure less than 4.2 metres and be assembled within the EU. Individual countries will be given leeway to financially support battery production within the economic block, and Stellantis has already announced a 4.1billion Euro (£3.5billion) Spanish joint venture with Chinese battery maker CATL, with their Zaragoza gigafactory due to be producing packs by the end of 2026.
The Commission wants to fast-track the supply of homegrown, affordable EVs – filling the EV void beneath 25k Euros – the equivalent of £21,500 – before subsidies.
Citroen’s effort will fall comfortably within these parameters, with Chardon saying: “We are still missing three-million people [since the Covid pandemic] buying new cars each year in Europe.
“And most of it, I would say 60 per cent of it, is driven by the simple fact that you don’t have any cars anymore below €15,000 or £15,000. I think what is important for the brand is to offer a solution where we will be able to offer an electric car below €15,000. I can confirm that we are working on this.”
Assuming the EU ruling is issued by the end of this year, Citroen will be on track to have its electric 2CV EV in production in 2028.
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