The needs of a commercial vehicle user are very different from those who buy a car for personal or family use. Therefore, demands change. So much so that Citroën is delivering a model with two cabins, one facing each side. And it turns out to be a great solution.
If until now commercial vehicles were not attractive, this one does at least attract a lot of attention. This Citroën Relay, the equivalent of the Jumper van sold in many countries, is offered in England with an unusual configuration.
Built on the Fiat Ducato platform, it was aptly named Back to Back, and it is not an image generated with artificial intelligence.
The image was shared by a Reddit user after seeing it on Citroën’s website for commercial vehicles in the UK.
Clearly it is not a vehicle that can operate in these conditions, with the cabins facing opposite directions. But the idea behind Relay Back to Back is to reduce production and shipping costs.
The cabins of this Citroën are bolted to a temporary structure and this design was designed for external companies that develop special equipment based on the vehicles. This is the case of builders of mobile homes or other types of vehicles with special applications, such as tow trucks or emergency services.
With this solution, manufacturing costs are reduced because Citroën produces these parts of the van without having to add the usual rear chassis-cab. You save on elements and materials.
Likewise, transportation and shipping costs are also reduced, since the Relay Back to Back takes up less space than two conventional versions of the chassis cab versions separately.
The possibility of being able to configure the two cabins in this way is due to the fact that these Citroën vans have front-wheel drive and, therefore, there are no drive axles to get rid of after delivery.
This also allows development companies to have greater freedom when designing their rear parts, as they are not forced to comply with the rear chassis-cab supplied by the automaker.
This is another way to reduce costs, since reducing the complexity of the design also reduces the waste of elements. In this way, companies that manufacture vehicles with a chassis and cabin no longer have to deal with the elements that are installed at the factory and can go directly to installing their customized rear accessories.
According to what was published in Motor1, another Stellantis Group brand, Peugeot, does the same with the Boxer Back to Back, clearly a good alternative to save when buying a vehicle.