Call it a Tin Snail, a Duck or whatever - the Citroen 2CV is back as a diesel-hybrid
Auto Express UK has a preview of the redesigned Citroën 2CV, a still-snail-like concept vehicle that brings the iconic vehicle from the second half of the 20th Century rushing into the 21st with some green credentials. The 2CV update - with a concept vehicle possibly destined for the auto shows in 2009 - will likely be a diesel-electric hybrid with high mpg and low emissions. The vehicle architecture will likely be based on the C3 supermini and C4 hatch. Other than that, there's very little information available at this point, but the new CV2 looks to enter the family car market and will compete by meshing classic looks with good-for-the-environment fuel requirements. And duck-lovers around the world start cheering.
Read more at Auto Express.
[Source: Autoexpress UK, h/t to Great Slack]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TG 1:24PM (5/05/2007)
Gas Prices Could Hit Record in May
MoneyNews
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
NEW YORK -- U.S. retail gasoline prices could hit an all-time high by the end of this month due to ongoing problems at the nation's oil refineries, automobile and travel group AAA said Wednesday.
Gasoline prices have surged 30 cents since early April to $2.97 a gallon on average, bringing them within a dime of the record struck after Hurricane Katrina shut down refineries along the Gulf Coast in 2005.
**The nationwide average price of self-serve regular will probably hit $3 per gallon in the next few days, and could possibly set a new all-time record high price before the end of the month,** AAA said.
======== MoneyNews.com
OK, so you think a hybrid is the answer?
Wrong! It will save you gas, When gas is for sale at the pumps, but when Iran makes a blast off shore, you can bet all gasoline will be held for military and emergency services use.
Hybrids and gas / diesel vehicles alike will sit in driveways.
A battery car or EV is designed to avoid the liability of gasoline.
All those seniors on 4 wheel EVs and those who use electric motorbikes [scooterteq], will likely have smug looks on their faces on *No Gas* day. And the Fwench will get their mail on 10,000 California made EVs. Shame on us!
So while we still have gas available, you could be driving an ordinary Honda Insight 50 mpg [700 miles per tank] or a bio-oil VW Jetta TDI if you have access to bio-diesel in your area. 49 mpg.
Hybrids make sense if you know for certain that gas supply will never be cut off.
Logic suggests the opposite is likely. = TG
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Der Alte 4:39AM (5/06/2007)
Don't know why you choose to hit on this car. Its a diesel hybrid. By the time its ready to reach the masses, I'm sure it will be bio diesel ready...not that you really have to do much with diesel engines to run biodiesel unless you live in a cold climate.
Should the gasoline supply run dry, I suspect not being able to get around will be the least of everybody's concerns. The economic devastation of such an event would be far more prominent in people's minds. Something along the lines of what you fear would make the Great Depression look like a speed bump.
As much as I hate to say this, if there was a build up of military conflict in the middle east such that oil supplies would be seriously jeopardized...the temptation for radical solutions would start to surface. I think the prospects of complete worldwide economic collapse and the grim prospect of nuclear war in the Middle East would leave me a little too distracted to yearn after the odd EV here and there.
There are no easy answers to the complex set of problems the world has found itself entagled in. The old proverb "may you live in interesting times" has never been truer.
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Mattias 7:24AM (5/06/2007)
The photo shows one of Autobild's renderings using the current C3 as base. Autobild's article on an upcoming 2CV successor is highly speculative. Citroen might use a more 2CV-like concept to give hints of the next generation C3 (expected in 2009) to the masses. Besides that, the next C3 will surely use Peugeots 207 underpinnings (updated and longer version of the current C3s platform).
The diesel hybrid is already considered production ready but still to expensive. Once Diesel reaches 1.50€/l PSA might instantly offer it.
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Rick 11:35AM (5/07/2007)
I don't care if that thing gets 100mpg, it's hideous by Aztek standards! Wow, a VW bug on drugs. OMG those rear covered wheels were hideous 40 years ago and went away as a design concept for many reasons. Look at the Insight, didn't do well with that unnecessary and unsightly design error. I just can't get past the design to even take the specs seriously. Wow that's ugly, tho it must get good mpg.
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