Italian coachbuilder Caselani has teamed up with Citroën’s design team to transform the Citroën Berlingo in a 2CV van. Sporting a vintage-style body kit on the outside, the conversion features a generous rounded front panel, an imposing flared M-shaped grille proudly sporting Citroën chevrons, large round headlights and wavy slats on the sides, the rear area and roof.
The Berlingo 2CV Van will be marketed by Caselani under an official Citroën license. First of all under the base of the commercial version of size “M” (4.40 m), for professionals, and later also as a leisure version for transporting people. It will be available with all types of motorization, including electric version. It will be available for pre-order from October 1 and production will begin in January 2023.
The Citroën Berlingo features a number of exterior styling elements that pay homage to the legendary 2CV Van AU (U for ‘Utility’) introduced in 1951 and which won a number of awards. faithful followers with its numerous conversions up to 1987. The 2CV Berlingo Van is a modern reinterpretation of it, which has all the advantages of the current Berlingo in terms of architecture, load capacity, modularity, technologies and road performance.
Caselani has harnessed the wave of vintage fashion, especially rooted in Italian car culture. This trend is evident in both private and professional vehicles: it is about breathing new life into a legendary model of the past, while incorporating all the modern equipment and features found in a vehicle today.
In the case of the conversion carried out in the Berlingo, it is a reinterpretation that is based on the success of a pioneer van and in the very success of the Berlingo Furgón, the protagonist of its segment in Europe since its launch in 1996 and which in its three generations has sold more than 1,891,196 units. At the end of August 2022 it was the second best-selling vehicle in its segment in Europe, with a market share of 17%. It is a very versatile vehicle that has managed to reinvent itself over the years and was a pioneer in the leisure vehicle segment, introducing many innovations such as the integrated cabin, the configuration of three front seats, the electric parking brake and, more recently in the third generation, the overload indicator. It has also been one of the first electric vans, launched in 2013.
Caselani has entrusted the redesign exercise of the Berlingo to David Obendorfer, recognized for having previously designed the Type H based on the Citroën Jumper in 2017 and the new Type HG on the Jumpy/SpaceTourer in 2020. This completes the range of Citroën vans Designed by Caselani.