This brutalist thing you see before you is the first design study from a recently-revamped Citroën, called the Oli (pronounced “all-e”).
The concept behind the quirky electric mini 2+2 pick-up anchors around themes of affordability and sustainability. The Oli is made from recycled and recyclable materials and, of course, is electric.
Along with debuting Citroën’s new badging, the concept car introduces a grille-less front fascia, C-shaped lights, red highlights around the windshield frame and on, what look to be, front and rear tow hooks.
The wheels themselves and the wheel arch mouldings are virtually the only visible curved lines on the silhouette, with the front doors boasting C4 Cactus-like protective bumps. The rear door glass drops in line with the door handle, below the vehicle’s beltline.
At the rear is a small bed containing a removable tray made from recycled honeycomb cardboard (along with the bonnet and roof, which Citroën says you can stand on). Things are kept hidden and protected by a retracting glass hatch. The cargo area can also be expanded from 679 millimetres to 1050mm in length, and up to 582mm in height with the recycled tray removed and with the glass hatch retracted.
Rear doors are rear-hinged, and open to an eye-searing ‘infra-red’ interior, containing four individual seats. The seat backs are 3D-printed from thermoplastic polurethane (TPU), and attach to tubular frames mounted to the floor and suspended by shock absorbing isolation rings. Citroën says they contain fewer components than a conventional car seat.
The dashboard also utilises minimal components in its construction with sound coming from a removable bluetooth speaker, with a simple smartphone dock on the steering column rendering the need for instruments or screens redundant.
It must be said that this minimal, function-focused interpretation of automotive futurism is rather refreshing in an era where most manufacturers are simply throwing screens at every surface and ambient lighting in every crevice.
The modular floor is made from a single-piece of expanded thermoplastic polyurethane foam (E-TPU), also found in running shoes and bicycle saddles, and can be replaced or colour-coded for personalisation.
Thanks to clever materials and packaging, despite its EV powertrain, the Citroën Oli tips the scales at a neat 1000 kilograms. The French electric pick-up boasts a 40kWh battery with an estimated range of 400 kilometres, and can charge from 20-80 per cent in 23 minutes.
Its electric architecture also enables V2L (vehicle-to-load) and V2G (vehicle-to-grid) discharge, meaning the Oli can also power external devices, or store and sell excess energy back to the grid.
Citroën has considered every stage of the Oli’s lifecycle, with its construction and components intended to form a ‘circular economy’, with the ease and sustainability of replacing components theoretically allowing any Oli to be “affordably reinvented for several subsequent lives with new owners using refurbished parts, new decors or colours, and even upgraded parts over time”.
While full of clever ideas, the Citroën Oli remains a design study for now, though the French manufacturer tells us keep an eye out for its “ideas, design details and interior advances represented in future production models”.
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Keyword: The Citroën Oli is an electric mini pick-up made from recycled materials