I've always been amazed why the 2CV is seen as a styling icon. It's a bare-bones car from the 1930's which didn't get produced until the late 40's due to the war. By the time production ramped up it was hopelessly outdated.<p>The only thing positive that can be said about the modern iteration is its $15K price. But for that money you're not getting a <i>real</i> car but a city roundabout with very limited range and speed. The Chinese BYD Seagull is a real car for $10,000 which is quite large to boot.<p>It's positive that European carmakers are finally catering to the wallets of their customers. No one is clamoring for an electric $50K VW Rabbit (VW Golf).
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.<p>> No one is clamoring for an electric $50K VW Rabbit (VW Golf).<p><a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2026/10/03/europe-ev-sales-report-record-month-bevs-reach-30-market-share/" rel="nofollow">https://cleantechnica.com/2026/10/03/europe-ev-sales-report-...</a><p>The ID4 is about Golf-sized, costs about 45kE, and is sitting at #6 on the EV sales chart.
<i>"I've always been amazed why the 2CV is seen as a styling icon."</i><p>Style icon? Maybe you are thinking of the DS.<p>The 2CV was commonly considered ugly so much that in Germany it was only known as <i>Ugly Duckling</i>, despite being a popular car there.
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.<p>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.
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.
> The Chinese BYD Seagull is a real car for $10,000 which is quite large to boot.<p>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 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.
>I've always been amazed why the 2CV is seen as a styling icon<p>Round curves and lights looking like eyes, with proportions close to a human face.<p>The same design cues that made the VW Beetle and the Mazda Miata (1st gen) popular cars.<p>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.