Citroën Citela: Quirky electric car pioneer from the nineties

It's a mystery in the car world: Some innovations must be presented several times before they prevail. An example of this is the electric small car. In the early 1970s, there was a small wave of such e-tots for city traffic (such as Witkar in Holland, Enfield 8000 in England), which quickly dwindled; In the beginning of the 90's then again. At that time, BMW presented the electric prototype E1 (1991), a year later Renault the model Zoom - and Citroën caused a stir in the French pavilion at the 1992 World Fair in Sevilla, Spain with the study Citela.

At that time, people in many major cities increasingly suffered from automobile traffic and exhaust gases. In California, strict emissions regulations came into force in 1990. Automakers had to react - they launched an electric offensive, which also included vehicles such as the Fiat Panda Elettra, Opel Astra impulse 3, VW Golf City Stromer and the EV1 of General Motors.

Citroën Citela, the "most changeable car in the world"

Citroëns Citela, however, was much more complex and original than the simple acronym for "Citroën Electrique Automobile" suggests. "It's the most changeable car in the world," said the manufacturer. Whether this superlative was true at that time, can not be clarified, at least the Citroën developers had a brilliant idea: They packed the e-machine, batteries and gearbox in a sheathed in black plastic substructure, which could be put on various structures.

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The prototype was presented as a four-seat compact car with space for three adults and one child; but there were also superstructure variants as coupe, convertible and pick-up. "In less than five minutes" change the body, said Citroën. In principle, the car was similar to a wheelbarrow - which could be equipped as needed. And the drive platform also looked a bit like a wheelbarrow, especially because of the tightly placed rear wheels, barely visible from the side.

The car was light, cheap to manufacture and largely recyclable. The body consisted of unmixed plastic parts, and the vehicle weighed only 790 kilograms - including nickel-cadmium batteries with a storage capacity of 14 kWh. The sockets were under the rear license plate, which could be folded up. Optionally, electrical energy could then be tapped on a household socket (in eight hours) or on a fast charging station.

The range was 210 kilometers

According to Citroën, the Citela came with fully charged batteries for about 210 kilometers, the electric machine with a voltage of 72 volts worked, developed a power of 20 kW (27 hp) and could accelerate the car to up to 110 km / h.

The prototype with the practical sliding doors was built by the French body company Heuliez. It had special, 14-inch light-alloy tires from Michelin and offered an electric heater, with which the interior was tempered before the ride.

The presentation at the World's Fair stated that the Citela was ready for mass production. But that never happened. Was there a lack of demand? In the unwillingness of the industry to establish a new drive technology? There were probably several reasons. And maybe it was not the strange design of the Citela.

The visionary technology was last enjoyed by an unknown bidder, who bought the Citela at the end of 2017 for 14,560 euros. At that time, the Citroën Conservatoire, the automobile archive of the French manufacturer, had auctioned a total of 65 vehicles from its inventory of the auction house Leclere.