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Citroën Oli concept is electric and made from cardboard (sort of)

Citroën Oli concept is electric and made from cardboard (sort of)


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The wee-little pug-nosed beastie you see here is the brand-new Citroën Oli concept, and it's not like other cars. You see, most vehicles are made from stampings of steel and aluminum. A few, like the Chevy Corvette, have bodies formed out of fiberglass, the DeLorean was famously stamped from stainless steel and the former East German Trabant was fashioned out of something called Duroplast, which is sort of like Formica. The Citroën Oli is "made from recycled corrugated cardboard formed into a honeycomb sandwich structure between fiberglass reinforcing panels."

We know what you're thinking, because it's the first thing we thought too. How can cardboard stand up to the weather, impacts and stresses that cars will undoubtedly have to contend with? The quirky French automaker has answers. Citroën partnered with BASF to design the material, and it's coated in a kind of resin, then covered in a protective layer of a "tough, textured" product called Elastocoat that's often used in parking garage construction, and finally painted. Bumpers are formed from polypropylene plastic containing 50% recycled materials, and the wheel arches are recyclable plastic, too.