{"id":2005750,"date":"2026-06-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2005750"},"modified":"2026-06-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:00:00","slug":"citroen-will-use-the-elo-concept-to-bring-back-the-mpv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2005750","title":{"rendered":"Citroen will use the ELO concept to bring back the MPV"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Good news! A friendly-looking, practical, Citroen-badged MPV will return! Sort of!<\/p>\n

Citroen boss Xavier Chardon confirmed to TopGear.com that the French carmaker with a long history in friendly-looking, practical, Citroen-badged MPVs is looking at how to bring the best bits of the brilliant ELO concept<\/a> into some sort of production life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019ll be the inspiration for what could be the future of the MPV,\u201d he told TopGear.com. \u201cWhat we call MPV 2.0. You will never see it in this shape, because there are too many restrictions, but there will be some inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those restrictions primarily take the form of a rear-wheel-drive layout, central driving position, and little winglets for mirrors. And the fact it\u2019s an orange concept with mad wheels, a smiley face and a huge glasshouse. Much as we\u2019d love to see exactly that, y\u2019know, \u2018concept car\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And yet Citroen design boss Pierre Leclercq and his team want to bring as much of that car into reality as possible. \u201cLet\u2019s say that there are many things in that car that we will try and put on the road. It\u2019s an everyday fight, like every project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty of our group is we have synergies. But we have to make sure we create the right products for the right brands,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chardon was also keen to point out it\u2019s still too soon to talk about this ELO-inspired box, but did agree with TopGear.com\u2019s assertion that the MPV is a thoroughly good and underserved bodyshape.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think so,\u201d he said. \u201cWe all remember when the first Qashqai was introduced and was the trendsetter for SUVs. Today you have more than 50 per cent of the European market that is SUV, so it\u2019s time [for something else].<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a trend that becomes mainstream, you will have other trends that appear, and one could be an MPV. You have to twist is a bit, and this is what we are thinking of,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Hopefully the twist isn\u2019t \u2018here\u2019s another amorphous electric blob\u2019. TopGear.com put it to Leclercq that despite the talk of electricity freeing up car design to be braver\/more experimental, all we seem to have largely been fed is the same, melty, homogenous aero-honed globule. But as a crossover.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cMy hope with ELO is to say \u2018hey, with electric technology, let\u2019s break our format and let\u2019s gain 10in\u2019. Because 10in is something you give to the rear passengers. Or you make the car 10in shorter. But there\u2019s massive room we should be able to gain from electric technology,\u201d Leclercq said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that, look at Norway \u2013 almost full electric. Go to the south of Italy \u2013 only ICE. So we have to have a certain flexibility for our customers and the platforms have to have flexibility. When you try to have that flexibility, it\u2019s very difficult to revolutionise the car industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will come, but a bit slower,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Leclercq\u2019s already told TopGear.com about how he hates the word \u2018cute\u2019 when it comes to fun car design \u2013 speaking about the 2CV<\/a> \u2013 and how not everything has to be sporty and aggressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t mean it has to look boring,\u201d he said. \u201cWe try to simplify everything. We try to make sure we don\u2019t have overcomplicated design. We try in the proportions to have lightweight cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like we mentioned up top about the ELO\u2019s giant glasshouse, Leclercq uses the same example. \u201cI\u2019m always asking the designers to push the beltline down for many reasons. More glass means it\u2019s lighter visually.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, your kids in the back can see something on the road. I think too many cars are going so crazy with so much wedge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though, we\u2019re all here for a slightly mad, wedgy<\/em>, radically proportioned Citroen MPV\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good news! A friendly-looking, practical, Citroen-badged MPV will return! Sort of! Citroen boss Xavier Chardon confirmed to TopGear.com that the French carmaker with a long history in friendly-looking, practical, Citroen-badged MPVs is looking at how to bring the best bits of the brilliant ELO concept into some sort of production life. \u201cIt\u2019ll be the inspiration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2005750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2005750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2005750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2005750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2005750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}