The story of the 2CV

From its obsession with the single-spoke steering wheel to the production of the C3 Pluriel – which was simultaneously a hatchback and a pick-up truck – defying convention is integral to Citroën’s identity.

Such was the strength of this rebellious spirit that when Nazi occupation forces seized the metal press tools for the company’s first true car of the people, the Très Petite Voiture, company President Pierre-Jules Boulanger worked with the French Resistance to divert rail cars containing the tooling all over Europe, knowing it would likely doom Citroën’s chances of a post-war revival – a more palatable outcome for Boulanger than allowing the Nazis to profit from his own endeavours.

This is how the venerable Très Petite Voiture came to be, and how it survived one of the most turbulent periods of human history to become an icon…