Commercial vehicles are not particularly interesting, but this one is not your typical workhorse. The Citroen Relay is a badge-engineered version of the Fiat Ducato and is offered in an unusual configuration. It’s aptly called the Back to Back, and while it might look like a quick Photoshop experiment just for kicks, it’s real and makes sense. Bean counters in particular love it.
A Redditor spotted the contraption on Citroën’s UK website for commercial vehicles. The idea behind the Relay Back to Back is to lower production and shipping costs. The vans are bolted together on a temporary structure and are tailored to third-party companies that build motorhomes, campers, or other types of specialty vehicles such as for recovery or emergency services.
Manufacturing costs are reduced because Citroen builds the vans without having to add the usual chassis cab rear end. Shipping expenditures go down as well since the Relay Back to Back takes up less space than two separate Relay Chassis Cab commercial vehicles. Since the vans are front-wheel drive, there aren’t any driveshafts to get rid of after taking delivery.
Businesses also have greater freedom to build their own rear ends without having to comply with the chassis cab rear supplied by the automaker. Reducing complexity not only lowers costs but also reduces waste. Companies that make cab-chassis-based vehicles don’t have to deal with the factory-fitted cab chassis anymore and can jump straight to fitting their custom rear attachments.
As weird as it may look, this is a win-win situation. We did a bit of digging and discovered that another Stellantis brand, Peugeot, does the same thing with the mechanically related Boxer Back to Back. Of course, these models come with their own engines, gearboxes, VINs, and whatnot. They’re practically two vans joined at the proverbial hip only during transport.
The two Back to Back models carry an identical starting price of £36,018, which works out to nearly $45,000 at current exchange rates. We’ve reached out to Citroen and Peugeot to find out whether the price is for both or just one. We reckon the price is just for one but we’re waiting for either brand to confirm.