The Citroën oli Concept picks up from the success of the Citroën Ami.
The market for an ultra-compact electric vehicle with some personality is expanding fast as the industry makes the shift away from ICE. Keen to explore some possibilities in this space, Citroën introduced the Ami in 2020. Now, they’re looking at a new EV concept called the ‘oli’ that’s a little larger than the Ami. The oli is 4.2 metres long, 1.65 metres tall and 1.9 metres wide.
The Citroën oli (pronounced “all-e”) concept was designed as a lightweight, uncomplicated, joyful and inventive and affordable electric vehicle for a small family. Simultaneously, Citroën built in best-in-class sustainability, durability and recyclability.
The seats, for example, have been engineered to use 80% fewer parts than conventional designs and are made of recycled materials. They’re also upgradable and customisable. They’ve also cut the weight of the doors by 20% by halving the number of components required and using the same design for both doors, just mounting them differently.
Many of the vehicle’s exterior panels are made of recycled corrugated cardboard formed into a honeycomb sandwich structure between fibreglass reinforcing panels. These panels are coated with a tough Elastoflex Polyurethane resin, textured in Elastocoat and painted with a special paint.
All this cuts the weight of the panels by 50% versus their steel equivalents while being strong enough to hold up an adult’s weight. Roof rails can be mounted for bike racks or roof boxes. Charging cables are and more go into the frunk. Part of oli’s charm is its versatility. The vehicle features a little pick up bed at the rear yet has room for 4 occupants.
The Citroën oli is powered by a 40kWh battery capable of just under 400km of range. The top speed is limited to just under 110km/h, so this is not an ideal car for cross country drives. Fast charging enables a 20%-80% charge takes just 23 minutes.
The oli also has smart ‘Vehicle to Grid’ and ‘Vehicle to Load’ capabilities, enabling owners to treat the vehicle as a portable power bank (230v 16amp equivalent) or to store excess solar power before selling it back to the energy supplier during peak hours.
