In 1998 Citroën built a range-extender hybrid Berlingo — the Dynavolt — pairing nickel-cadmium batteries with a tiny 500cc LPG engine just to keep them topped up, two decades before 'range extender' was a buzzword.
Lead trim: 1.4 TU3 (75 PS) · up to 107 hp
Citroën Berlingo / PartnerM49 · 1996–2013
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Citroën Berlingo / Partner yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactIn 1998 Citroën built a range-extender hybrid Berlingo — the Dynavolt — pairing nickel-cadmium batteries with a tiny 500cc LPG engine just to keep them topped up, two decades before 'range extender' was a buzzword.
The first-generation Citroën Berlingo and its Peugeot Partner twin, a range of minivans officially launched in July 1996 and sold as light commercial vehicles or as passenger multi-purpose variants with rear seats and windows. Shown at the 1996 Paris Motor Show with three concepts, the Berlingo Coupé de Plage, Berline Bulle and Grand Large, of which only the Grand Large was developed, into the Multispace and Combi people carriers. A revised version with a new instrument cluster, redesigned interior and front end arrived in September 2002 (M59), with a minor facelift in 2004. After the second generation launched, these cars stayed on sale as the Citroën Berlingo First and Peugeot Partner Origin, and pre-facelift versions were still produced in Argentina until 2010. Engines ranged from the 1.4 TU3 and 1.6 TU5 petrols to 1.9 and 2.0 HDi diesels, and the Berlingo Electrique had a 28 kW Leroy Somer motor with a 162 V nickel-cadmium battery from 1998 to 2005; a hybrid prototype, the Berlingo Dynavolt, was developed in 1998.
Collectors Spotted in the Citroën Berlingo Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Citroën Berlingo yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
8 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.4 TU3 (75 PS) | 1996–2013 | 1.4 L Inline-4 | 74 hp | 89 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 1.6 HDi DV6 (75 PS) | 1996–2013 | 1.6 L Inline-4 | 74 hp | 127 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 1.6 HDi DV6 (92 PS) | 1996–2013 | 1.6 L Inline-4 | 91 hp | 159 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 1.6 TU5 (109 PS) | 1996–2013 | 1.6 L Inline-4 | 107 hp | 108 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 1.8 XU7 (90 PS) | 1996–2013 | 1.8 L Inline-4 | 89 hp | 108 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 1.9 DW8 diesel (71 PS) | 1996–2013 | 1.9 L Inline-4 | 70 hp | 94 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 1.9 XUD IDI diesel (71 PS) | 1996–2013 | 1.9 L Inline-4 | 70 hp | 89 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
| 2.0 HDi DW10 (90 PS) | 1996–2013 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 89 hp | 151 lb-ft | — | FWD | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
Italian coachbuilder Caselani turned 200 Berlingos into retro vans modelled on the 1951 2CV Fourgonnette.
This humble French delivery van's electric version wasn't home-grown — its motor and battery were borrowed straight from the Mitsubishi i-MiEV.
In 1998 Citroën built a range-extender hybrid Berlingo — the Dynavolt — pairing nickel-cadmium batteries with a tiny 500cc LPG engine just to keep them topped up, two decades before 'range extender' was a buzzword.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
Chevy pitched the Astro as the anti-minivan, telling buyers life was too big for one, while it rode on a rear-wheel-drive truck frame.
The IIHS rated the Astro Poor in a 1996 crash test, yet 2001–2004 Astros later had the lowest driver death rate of any US passenger vehicle.
The boxy, unglamorous Astro quietly posted one of the best real-world safety records in America: IIHS found 2001-2004 models had the fewest driver deaths per million vehicles of any passenger vehicle on US roads.
The third-generation Tourneo Connect, released in Europe in October 2021, is a rebadged fourth-generation Volkswagen Caddy, assembled by Volkswagen in Poland.
Ford beat the 25% "chicken tax" by importing the Transit Connect as a passenger van — rear windows and seats included, then stripped out and recycled once it landed in the US.
Ford spent years in federal court over the second-gen Transit Connect: in June 2019 the US won its appeal, and judges ruled the van was cargo-only — ending Ford's workaround for the 'chicken tax.'
GM sold a rebadged Nissan NV200 as the Chevy City Express for four years, then killed it in 2018, citing weak sales and the fact that its parts weren't even compatible with GM's own parts catalog.
Its name is a pun: "S-Cargo" means "Small Cargo" but sounds just like escargot — French for snail, the shape the whole van was built to resemble.