Hagerty just published an excellent account of the development of the TPV (short for très petite voiture) — the prototype of the 2CV. It goes into great detail as to how Michelin encouraged it’s development to sell their tires in France, Pierre Boulanger’s directive to Citroën engineeers, the limitations that Citroën noted to it’s dealers and the effort made by the Germans in WWII to get their hands on one!
It is a must read for anyone interested in Citroën history and particularly for all 2CV enthusiasts!
Congratulations go to the author, Ronan Glon, and Hagerty for such a fascinating article. — You can read it here: https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/the-mythical-very-small-car-that-birthed-frances-beloved-2cv/
The article also touches on the TPV Pick–up that managed to survive and is in a private collection near Lyon, France and the retrieval of the 3 TPVs in 1994, that were hidden at Citroën’s test track at La Ferté-Vidame. (We featured a more detailed article about their discovery in the Winter 2003 issue of the Citroën Autoclub Canada Newsletter.)
Also, check out the article we featured on Citroenvie: “Insightful Documentation Discovered About German Takeover Attempt of the TPV”: https://citroenvie.com/insightful-documentation-discovered-about-german-takeover-attempt-of-the-tpv/