On July 27, 1990, the last Citroën 2CV left the assembly line in Mangualde, Portugal. An event that marked the end of production of a successful model that had been presented at the 1948 Paris Motor Show, but whose development began 10 years earlier. When it was first presented, the 2CV surprised us with its original design, its versatility and its very economical approach , but it also stood out for its technological innovations, very advanced for the time, among which the front-wheel drive, its soft suspension and the 2-cylinder air-cooled engine. Quickly becoming a popular and highly demanded car, it was an integral part of society and today is recognized as an icon of automotive history.
The Citroën 2CV was developed with a very wide audience in mind at a time when the automobile was still a luxury item. It was an economic vehicle, with innovative features, which had to respond to the demands of the clientele of the time. The 2CV conquered the masses and in 1990, copies sold throughout its history exceeded 5.1 million (including derivatives).
In the mid-1930s, Citroën began the development of an economical car, the future Citroën 2CV. It had to be a small car, capable of driving on any type of terrain and transporting any type of object, economical to purchase and maintain. These were the requirements transmitted by the general manager to the engineer André Lefèbvre, who at that time was the technical manager of Citroën: “Ask your team to study a car that can transport two farmers wearing clogs, 50 kg of potatoes and a barrel of wine at a maximum speed of 60 km/h with a consumption of 3 liters per 100 km”.
Thanks to its highly versatile, low-consumption and low-cost characteristics, the ‘Toute Petite Voiture’ (‘very small car’) was a car for everyone, both in the city and in rural areas. The project was ready in 1939 and was to be presented that same year, but due to the start of the Second World War, the Paris Motor Show had to be suspended and the 250 prototypes already built were largely destroyed, surviving only a few copies that were hidden. After the war, Citroën returned to work on the project and entrusted Flaminio Bertoni with the aesthetics of what would end up being the Citroën 2CV, a model completely rethought with respect to the TPV and which was presented on October 7, 1948 at the Motor Show in Paris.
