Citroën created the 2CV, the inexpensive model launched in 1948 to provide basic transport for rural France.
Citroën unveiled the 2CV at the 1948 Paris Motor Show. Its name came from the French tax classification deux-chevaux, or two tax horsepower, rather than from the engine's exact mechanical horsepower. The car was designed to be simple, economical and capable of crossing poor rural roads while carrying passengers and farm goods.
Production continued for more than four decades, making the 2CV one of Europe's most enduring small cars. It used front-wheel drive, a soft long-travel suspension and an air-cooled flat-twin engine. The 2CV is sometimes treated as merely a quirky economy car, but its design was a deliberate response to postwar transport needs and changing French rural life.