Will Citroën buy it?

Is Citroën watching? This is not an official concept from the French marque

Is Citroën watching? This is not an official concept from the French marque. It's the Evoque, a concept produced by a group of budding designers from the Creapole School of Creation in Paris as their entry to this year's World Automotive Design Competition in Canada.

The brief was to come up with "a world car with universal appeal" and the 2CV was the obvious inspiration for the French team's entry. Reminiscent of the 1948 classic, it has attracted media interest across Europe and reports say it has already caught the eye of design chiefs at Citroën.

Senior executives have said that they no longer see the role of the marque as creating retro or avant garde cars, such as the 2CV or the DS. However, two recent additions to the range, the Pluriel and the C6, suggest that, beneath such cold commercial statements, there's still a desire to produce quirky, unique models.

If Citroën were to take on board such a project, it would likely position it against the likes of the MINI, redesigned by BMW as a premium hatchback revision on the budget-priced classic from the 1960s.