I would explain in more detail but why listen to me when you can have Tintin and Captain Haddock walk you through features such as the dual purpose tyre-iron / starter-crank?:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/266233955544
One of their best innovations was the four wheel drive version that did away with front/rear transmission by having separate front/rear engines!
https://citroenvie.com/1964-citroen-2cv-sahara-a-love-story/
(Not my site, but I have an almost identical set of photos from the same auction in Berlin. What a treat!)
It's because the design was simple and cheap but effective. It's a distinctive, original design that was bought by everyone from farmers to the aristocracy.
Take the badge off that BYD and you would struggle to tell it apart from any other soulless boring car. In 5 years time BYD will have changed the design with nothing retained and still nothing distinctive about it.
This new 2CV on the other hand is very distinctive to the point where some will love it and some will hate it.
It's a good cheap, small car that will be easy to drive in cities. It's also "classless" car in the best sense.
Some people will want it regardless of how much money they have. It's the opposite of "try hard". You'd only buy a Seagull because you can't afford something better (from BYD or anyone else).
> No one is clamoring for an electric $50K VW Rabbit (VW Golf).
Actually the electric Golf (Rabbit) already exists, it's called an ID.3. It's about the 5th best selling electric car in Europe so it's, apparently, exactly what a lot of people want.
Wait, why is this a "con"? I want a soulless box that flies under the radar and doesn't attract looks and vandals, as long as it's solid, cheap and reliable.
>You'd only buy a Seagull because you can't afford something better (from BYD or anyone else).
Hate to break it to you but BYDs and Xiaomis aren't so much cheaper in the EU than competitors, so it's not a signals of being "poor", it's a signal of being savvy with your money and not a badge snob. Same how shopping at Lidl/Aldi doesn't necessarily mean you're broke, just that you're too smart to pay extra for a fancy brand name on the same produce.
There's nothing wrong with a Seagull, if you like it that's great but how can you claim it's is both cheap and "not that cheap" at the same time? Surely it's one or the other?
This 2CV is going to be really cheap. There are buyers on a budget that will really appreciate something a bit different that won't break the bank. It's a mistake to think that all working class people want exactly the same thing in a car.
Even the Chinese designs are acceptable to good, mostly because they hire design expertise from Europe and North America.
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.
In the 1970s getting 100,000 miles on a car gave you bragging rights - you would invite your friends to see it turn over, driving away in a cloud of blue smoke (engine oil burns blue), and carefully avoid puddles since they would splash water through the holes in the floor.
These days cars go a lot longer before they fail and so people with limited money buy used cars.
You could ask the same about the Opinel No. 8 knife. Same thing since 1890s, one minor update every 50 years or so. It's still sold by the bucketload today for about €10.
It's just French, the same way a Lada is just Russian, a Mini Cooper is British or a Fiat 500 is Italian. It's part of post-WW2 cars that were cheap to buy, cheap to operate, cheap to fix and with production numbers in the millions.
> No one is clamoring for an electric $50K VW Rabbit (VW Golf).
https://cleantechnica.com/2026/10/03/europe-ev-sales-report-...
The ID4 is about Golf-sized, costs about 45kE, and is sitting at #6 on the EV sales chart.
(see also: Renault Twingo, Dacia (Renault Romanian subsidiary) Spring)
The ID.3 is almost a perfect match for the Golf in exterior size (within a couple of cm in length). The ID.4 is substantially larger, most obvious being 30cm longer. At least in Europe the ID.4 is considered an SUV.
Style icon? Maybe you are thinking of the DS.
The 2CV was commonly considered ugly so much that in Germany it was only known as Ugly Duckling, despite being a popular car there.
I do assume it is now more of a style icon, where you only drive it on sunny Sundays, or daily if you want to be counter-culture.
Yes, style icon. That is a well established matter of record.
> The 2CV was commonly considered ugly so much that in Germany it was only known as Ugly Duckling [...].
Utter rubbish! The Germans, I happen to be one of 'em, call(ed) the 2CV just Ente. That translates to duck.
https://www.novinky.cz/clanek/auto-legendarni-kachna-citroen...
Maybe in your small bubble. The 2CV was, and is, as much of a style icon as the Käfer (Beetle), the Topolino, the R4, the Mini, the Cinquecento and other greats of its time. As a matter fact, it's undoubtedly one of the titans amongst outstanding examples of automobile design and culture. Where the heck have you lived?!
The 2CV was designed from the start as one of the cheapest cars possible. Ultra cheap things are rarely considered "style icons" during their heyday.
The Dutch Wikipedia article explicitly calls it Lelijke Eend and the German one has some references to "das hässliche Entlein" and how Citroën tried to sway people to a more favorable nickname. There is also a book with it in the title.
Again you may be thinking of the DS, which was Citroën's flagship model and its fender skirts were the ultimate expression of cool.
I have never, ever in my slightly more than forty years on this rock heard Germans refer to the 2CV as "hässliches Entlein", let alone their 2CVs, and especially not in colloquial conversion. It was always just Ente. Same goes for printed materials, e. g. magazines, books, etc.
As a matter of fact, I believe it's the opposite of what you imagined: The "ugly duckling" designation was used from time to time either by ignoramuses (e. g. in older magazine headlines), or, in an ironic fashion, by some of the machine's owners.
> Again you may be thinking of the DS, which was Citroën's flagship model and its fender skirts were the ultimate expression of cool.
No, I'm talking about the 2CV. At this point I should mention that I'm East German. Citroën cars, compared to other Western makers, were relatively common where I grew up during the 80s. The most common one before the Wende? That's right, the DS!
> The 2CV was designed from the start as one of the cheapest cars possible.
Utilitarian/economical design and beautiful styling are not mutually exclusive.
EDIT:
> The Dutch Wikipedia article explicitly calls it Lelijke Eend and the German one has some references to "das hässliche Entlein" and how Citroën tried to sway people to a more favorable nickname.
So... according to the German wiki's source the blame goes to an early impression from some random Dutch journo. Quickly shortened to Eendje, already before the car made it to the German market. Where it was virtually always just called Ente, cause nobody uses more words in colloquial speech than they have to. Especially not with a mouthful like "hässliches Entlein".
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.
I'd be very happy to buy a $15-20K modern electric minimalist equivalent, although I'd prefer boring normal Nissan Versa type styling, not 2CV quirkiness or the chopped 2+2 sub-compact car look.
There are segments (like urban daily driver) where “quite large” is not a selling point.
A lot of EVs are fucking huge, the renault 5/zoe for me is the sweet spot.
I like the 2cv, I really hope it has the pneumatic suspension, or atleast the soft suspension of its predecessor
the Renault zoe has a 50 kwhr battery, with a range of 4.8 miles per kwhr, it gives a reasonable range of about 200-240 miles.
Compare that to a polestar which is about 3.0-3.7, it needs a much bigger battery to get any decent range.
I don't know if anyone's clamouring, but ysk there exists a $50K PHEV Golf
Round curves and lights looking like eyes, with proportions close to a human face.
The same design cues that made the VW Beetle and the Mazda Miata (1st gen) popular cars.
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.