A black Citroen Elysee sedan, seen in 2015 on the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing. The Citroen had a very cool and very rare white license plate. That alone is worth a story, but this one was even more special because of its ZZX-001 sequence.
The Citroen Elysee was made by the Dongfeng-PSA joint venture. It was an updated and restyled variant of the Dongfeng-PSA Citroen ZX Fukang, which in turn was based on the France-made Citroen ZX. Production of the Elysee started in 2002 and ended in 2008.
So the owner of this car know his history!
White license plates for passenger cars were only issued in 2002 and 2003 in Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen. It was an experiment were citizens were allowed to come up with their own alphabetical/numerical combinations.
The experiment was cancelled after citizens came up with far too much creativity, choosing for various combinations with ‘sex’, ‘CIA’, ‘FBI’, and the infamous USA-911 which appeared on a Beijing car not long after the September 11 attacks. After the ensuing uproar the experiment was killed off but owners were allowed to keep the non-offensive plates.
The Elysee seen from my wife’s Changan-Suzuki Swift.
Considering the time-line, this ZX must be an early example, made in 2002 or 2003. Power came from a 1.6 with 106 hp and 142 Nm. The motor was mated to a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic. Price started at 99.800 yuan (2003) for the base model. The Elysee has turned out to be a survivor, even today these old sedans can still be seen on the outskirts of Beijing, but examples with white plates are surely ultra rare.