Citroen Oli: the 25,000 euro electric car weighs little and does 400 km | Video

Citroen Oli is not yet commercially available because it is a concept, but the French are keen to reiterate that the project is not one that will run out with a few appearances at the fair and then disappear into oblivion.

Defined as a laboratory on wheels, Oli is the first step towards the creation of a B-segment electric SUV made for four adults, with i comfort and safety of a real car (therefore not a quadricycle like Ami), cargo space and a range of 400 kilometers.

Increasing the range on traditional cars requires working on the battery, efficiency and aerodynamics. A large SUV forces you to cram even a hundred kWh into its battery, and costs soar.

For this reason, Citroen proposes a recipe, albeit a banal one, for mass electrification: to replace all those cars used today for city and extra-urban use with a model that reaches 110km/h top speedallowing you to also tackle ring roads and fast-flowing roads, and propose a “only” 40 kWh battery but going to limit the weight a lot.

In fact, the concept weighs approx 1,000 kilograms and this is why 40 kWh of battery is enough given that consumption, thanks to the limited speed, stands at 10 kWh every 100 kilometres.

To achieve the goal on a B SUV from 4.2 meters longCitroen worked on all elements of the car. The hood, roof and floor from the trunk use a cardboard core recycled which is reinforced both by its internal structure (honeycomb) and by the “sandwich” of fiberglass panels coated with resin and water-based paint. These are panels weighing only six kilograms they promise strength equivalent to steel.

The wheels then use hybrid steel and aluminum rims, while the seats have only three components. They may not be the most luxurious, but the areas that matter are padded and the rest of the structure is made to be ergonomic and light.

For refill Citroen Oils they will serve 23 minutes (data declared from 20 to 80%) and this will allow easy use even for those who do not have a garage since one or two quick top-ups a week will be enough to have sufficient autonomy. On the other hand, those who already have a house ready for electric mobility, with a socket or wallbox in the garage, will be able to use Oli as a storage battery or power source for the home since the V2Gthe protocol that allows a car to return energy to the grid by acting as a battery.

Also present the V2Lthe integration of a 3.6 kW socket to which we can connect any type of device and use the car as a (silent) generator when we are camping or in areas without electricity.

The project aims to redesign the car also in terms of its life cycle, for this reason it will be possible to easily replace the parts, many of which are identical, modular (the two doors are the same, the bumpers and the front and rear lights are the same) and recyclable.

Among the solutions for the interior there are then other measures to reduce costs. In addition to the seats that are easy to produce and with far fewer pieces than the traditional ones, we find removable speakers, a dashboard with an electrified band where to insert accessories that will be developed, a smartphone compartment that becomes the heart of the infotainment and navigation system and the integrated display to show driving information and more.

Saving costs also means cutting down on hardware, for that matter the computational power for entertainment and navigation systems is provided by the smartphone which now has on board processors capable of making it versatile.

On paper, this is a very clever solution. However, we will have to wait for the development of this project: Citroen is trying to accelerate and the first step has already been taken with the Ami, a light quadricycle which, however, has the limit of being used exclusively by citizens given the speed limited to 50 kilometers per hour.

Italy needs cars that can cover the needs of those who commute around large urban centres, Milan and Rome are an example, but at the same time we need a car that can have comfort, size and practicality for some more variegated. For this electric cars with 400 kilometers and good space on board could be the answer to the needs of many.

Working on electric cars between €20,000 and €30,000, Citroen will therefore focus on what is an obligatory step in a scenario that has not yet responded to this need, if we exclude the first attempts of some Chinese companies. Are we on the right track for electrification? We’ll see, but Oli’s promises are interesting…