Like an open umbrella on four wheels, capable of transporting four adults and 50kg of luggage over a plowed field with a basket of eggs without breaking a single one. This is how Pierre-Jules Boulanger, head of Citröen, described the Citröen 2CV in 1937, perhaps the first SUV in history, when the brand was not going through its best moment and the tire company Michelin had put it at the forefront of the automobile industry. , three years before. So, this car had not yet been baptized with the name with which it has passed down to posterity and it was only the TPV Project (Très Petite Voiture, Very Small Car, in French).
Boulanger was not alone in the endeavor and was accompanied by the engineer André Lefebvre and the designer Faminio Bertoni, whom André Citröen had hired in 1932. Bertoni became the brand's chief designer until his death in 1964, and was responsible for some of the most daring vehicle designs for Citröen in automotive history.
At that same time, Adolf Hitler commissioned what would become another legendary designer, Ferdinand Porsche, to create a Volkswagen, which in German means car for the people, that is, within the reach of the common people's economy. The premises in the design of the 2CV were the same. Create a car for the French that was simple and cheap to maintain.
It is the same path that Fiat later resorted to with its Fiat 500 in Italy, or Seat in Spain with the popular Six Hundred.
So in 1937, a first prototype of the 2CV had already been built, consisting of a chassis made of aluminum tubes, an alloy block and gearbox, a wooden platform, and an air-cooled engine. In addition, the body was made of corrugated metal and did not have an electrical installation, nor a battery for starting, which was done manually with a crank, and a simple suspension, but which ensured the comfort of the four passengers and that it did not break. no eggs in the basket, in Boulanger's view.
But World War II stopped the project. The prototypes and plans were destroyed, and the factory was dedicated to the military effort. But Boulanger did not abandon the idea and, in 1948, the first 2CV was presented at the Paris Motor Show, where it garnered a division of opinion between those who believed it was a bad joke and those who thought it was a good solution for many people.
That first model had a convertible canvas roof and a power of 9 horsepower delivered by a 375 cubic centimeter twin-cylinder engine. The good reception of the 2CV at the Paris show encouraged Citröen to start production the following year.
The last unit left the factory in Portugal in 1990. Until then, more than 5 million CVs were manufactured worldwide, 280 thousand of which left, from 1958 to 1982, the facilities that the brand inaugurated in Vigo in 1954.
The Citröen 2CV underwent modifications and changes throughout its history, in addition to serving as inspiration and basis for other legendary Citröen models, such as the Dyane 6 – which had a shorter life, from 1967 to 1983 – or the Mehari – from 1968 to 1988–.
The maximum speed that a 2CV model ever reached was 115 km/hour. Countless versions were made, including several in van format, and one, the Sahara, with four-wheel drive.
When it went on the market in 1949, the 2CV cost 228,000 old francs, about 7,800 euros today. In 1990, the last year of its production, the most expensive model cost 48,000 francs, about 11,350 euros today.
It continues to be an object of desire by classic collectors. In 2018, an original 1949 model was auctioned for 75,000 euros. In 2021, 142,000 euros were paid for a Charleston model. But the 2CV for which the most money was paid was 210,000 euros for one whose body and cabin were completely restored in wood by the carpenter Michel Robillard.
On the second-hand market you can get them, depending on the state of conservation, between 4,000 and 10,000 euros.
