Citroen: History, Landmark Models and Today's Range

Citroen at a glance

Citroën is a French mass-market car brand, one of the 14 brands of the Stellantis group. Key facts as of October 2026:

1919–1934: gears, mass production and the double chevron

Citroën started as a gear maker turned munitions supplier, and André Citroën used the money and methods from both to build cars in the American way. Early on he had bought the patent for double-helical, or herringbone, gears after seeing wooden examples in Poland. The two rows of angled teeth became the double chevron, still the company badge today.

In 1914 he set up a munitions company. In 1919, after visiting Ford, he converted the business to car production with moving assembly lines. The first model, the Type A, was announced in March 1919, and the first customer car is usually dated to 7 July 1919. The B2 followed in 1921.

André Citroën also used long-distance expeditions as publicity. Half-tracked vehicles built under the Kégresse system, produced from 1921, crossed the Sahara between December 1922 and January 1923. The Croisière Jaune of 1931–32 drove from Lebanon to China. The company was reorganised as Citroën SA in 1924, it had bought the older maker Mors, and by 1930 it is usually ranked as the world's fourth-largest car manufacturer.

1934–1948: the Traction Avant and the Michelin rescue

The Traction Avant was the car that made Citroën's reputation and broke its finances. Presented on 18 April 1934 and built from the next day, it combined front-wheel drive with a unitary steel body, without a separate chassis. It was among the first mass-produced cars to use that layout. Production ran until July 1957 and reached 759,111 cars.

Its development costs were more than the company could carry: Citroën went bankrupt in 1934, and its largest creditor, Michelin, took control. Sources date the takeover differently, from December 1934 to 1935, so it is best given as 1934–35. André Citroën died in 1935.

Pierre-Jules Boulanger led Citroën under Michelin and became president in 1938. In 1936 he set the brief for a basic rural car, often summarised as an "umbrella on four wheels": it had to carry four people and 50 kg (110 lb) of goods at 50 km/h (31 mph) over poor roads. A launch at the 1939 Paris show was planned, but the war stopped the project, and the car did not appear until 1948.

1948–1970: the 2CV, the DS and the Maserati years

Post-war Citroën rested on two cars at opposite ends of the market. The Citroën 2CV was presented at the Paris Motor Show on 7 October 1948. At launch its air-cooled flat-twin displaced 375 cc and produced 6.6 kW (9 PS); later versions used 602 cc. French production ended in 1988, and the last car, a Charleston, left the Mangualde plant in Portugal on 27 July 1990. In total 3,867,932 saloons and 1,246,299 vans were built, a little over 5.1 million. The "9 million" figure often repeated online counts the whole family built on its mechanicals, including the Dyane, Ami and Méhari.

The DS was unveiled at the 1955 Paris Motor Show and took 743 orders in the first 15 minutes and about 12,000 on the first day. Flaminio Bertoni styled it and André Lefèbvre led the engineering. Its hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension, developed by Paul Magès and tested from 1954, used gas spheres and fluid pressure instead of steel springs. The DS was also the first mass-produced car with front disc brakes. Headlights that turned with the steering arrived in 1967. Between 1955 and 1975, 1,455,746 DS and ID models were built. The car also won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1959 and 1966.

The Ami 6 of 1961 filled the gap between the 2CV and the DS. At the top end, Citroën bought a major stake in Maserati in 1968 and kept it until 1975; the result was the SM grand tourer, launched at Geneva in 1970 with a 2.7-litre Maserati V6. The Italian side of that story is told in the history of Maserati.

1970–1990s: GS, CX, BX and the Peugeot takeover

Citroën entered the 1970s with new mid-range cars and left the decade as part of Peugeot. The GS of 1970 brought hydropneumatic suspension to a smaller family car, and its sales are usually quoted as about 2.5 million. The large CX replaced the DS in 1974.

In 1974 Citroën went bankrupt for the second time. Peugeot took about 38.2% of Citroën in December 1974 and raised its stake to 89.95% on 9 April 1976, creating the group known as PSA Peugeot Citroën. Citroën's Maserati stake ended in 1975.

Inside PSA, Citroën kept hydropneumatics on its bigger cars. The BX arrived in 1982, the XM in 1990, when it was named European Car of the Year, and the Xantia in 1994. The Berlingo van and leisure vehicle followed in July 1996.

Motorsport and engineering firsts

Citroën built its motorsport record first in rally raids and then in the World Rally Championship (WRC).

In desert events the ZX Rally Raid won the Dakar Rally in 1991 with Ari Vatanen and in 1994, 1995 and 1996 with Pierre Lartigue. Citroën also took the constructors' title in the Rally-Raid World Cup every year from 1993 to 1997.

In the WRC, Sébastien Loeb won nine drivers' championships in a row for Citroën from 2004 to 2012, a record. The team's manufacturers' titles are usually counted as eight (2003–2005 and 2008–2012). Citroën then won the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) manufacturers' title in 2014, 2015 and 2016, with José María López as drivers' champion in 2014. It left the WRC after the 2019 season. In September 2025 it announced an entry in Formula E for the 2025/26 season.

Its engineering firsts come mainly from two cars: the Traction Avant, among the first mass-produced cars with front-wheel drive and a unitary body, and the DS, with hydropneumatic suspension, front disc brakes and, from 1967, headlights that followed the steering.

2000s–2021: Picasso, the C-range, DS Automobiles and Stellantis

From around 2000 Citroën moved from model names to the C-series and leaned on practical family cars. The Xsara Picasso compact MPV arrived in 2001, the C3 supermini in 2002 and the C4 in 2004. Crossovers grew in importance, from the earlier C4 Aircross to the first C5 Aircross of 2017.

In 2009 PSA made DS, the name of the 1955 saloon, a separate premium brand; the DS 3 was launched in March 2010. The 1955 DS itself remains a Citroën.

The group renamed itself PSA Group in 2016 and bought Opel and Vauxhall in 2017. PSA then merged with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and the new company, Stellantis, came into being on 16 January 2021, with its headquarters in Hoofddorp in the Netherlands.

Citroen today: range and news in October 2026

In October 2026 Citroën sells a compact, largely electrified range built around the C3, C3 Aircross, C4, C5 Aircross, Berlingo and Ami, plus vans. Most cars come with both combustion or hybrid and electric versions, marked ë-, such as the ë-C3.

The current C3, launched in 2024, had more than 50,000 orders by October 2024. The second-generation C5 Aircross was revealed on 29 April 2025 and went on sale in October 2025; it is built at Rennes in France and offered as a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid and the electric ë-C5 Aircross. The Berlingo, built at Vigo in Spain and Mangualde in Portugal, marked 30 years with a special edition in June 2026. The Ami, a small two-seat electric car, has been sold since 2020.

According to Citroën, the brand sold 373,700 vehicles worldwide in the first half of 2026, 4.4% more than a year earlier, including China. European registrations rose by 8%, for a market share of 3.4%.

The Paris Motor Show runs from 12 to 18 October 2026. Citroën has announced that a new concept inspired by the 2CV is scheduled to be shown there, together with its Formula E car. Whether it leads to a production model has not been confirmed.

Current model line-up

The range below is as listed on Citroën's UK website in October 2026; years show when each nameplate started.

Every model Citroën has sold in recent years, with specifications, is listed in the Citroen catalogue.

Landmark models that defined Citroen

Thirteen cars sum up a century of Citroën: the Type A, the Traction Avant, the 2CV and the DS above all.

More cars of their era are covered among the classic cars on 1cars.

Citroen timeline

These are the dated milestones of Citroën history, from the gear workshop to Stellantis.

Citroen in numbers

Key production and sales figures:

• 759,111 Traction Avants built, 1934–1957.
• About 5.1 million 2CVs built, 1948–1990: 3,867,932 saloons and 1,246,299 vans.
• 1,455,746 DS and ID models built, 1955–1975.
• Nine consecutive WRC drivers' titles for Sébastien Loeb, 2004–2012.
• 373,700 vehicles sold worldwide in the first half of 2026.